Episcopal/Anglican/Liturgical/Progressive

St. Stephen’s is an Episcopal Church, which is part of the Anglican Communion. As Anglicans, our style of Christian spirituality and temperament is unique. Anglican spirituality is best outlines in the writings of John Westerhoff:

Anglican Spirituality

Liturgical/Biblical: Anglican/Episcopal spirituality is rooted in communal daily prayer (Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayers, Evening Prayer, Compline) as laid out in The Book of Common Prayer. Thus, our way of praying tends to have more formality and structure and is shaped by the Scriptures, the divine reading of Scripture and the prayerful meditation on the psalms.

Communal: For Episcopalians, communal prayer comes before and shapes personal prayer. Prayer is seen as an activity that connects us to God, to each other, to include the living to the dead. Communal prayer is a part of daily, weekly and yearly rhythms and both surrounds and informs community gatherings and meetings in which decisions are made.

Sacramental: Episcopalians see the world, itself, as sacramental, that is, capable of mediating the grace of God. Anglicans also emphasize the two primary sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist as well as offer the other sacramental rites of confirmation, holy matrimony, reconciliation, unction, and ordination.

Eucharistic (A Life Centered in the Holy Eucharist): Everything we do at St. Stephen’s is centered squarely in what we do at the Altar. All our ministries and outreach begin and emanate out from our celebration of the Holy Eucharist. We at St. Stephen’s believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist.

Incarnational: Episcopalians emphasize the incarnation, God’s entry into human life and history. Accordingly, we have an earthy spirituality that affirms the goodness of life and the created world and believes that the extraordinary is to be found in the ordinary.

Mystical: Episcopalians experience union with God as happening over time, bit by bit through a journey aided by spiritual discipline and prayer. Such a belief is consistent with the description of spiritual progress found in the mystics.

Anglican 

Comprehensive: We believe the truth is to be found in the tension between counter-opposites. We affirm both the sacred and secular, both the material and the non-material, both the mind and the heart, both the transcendence and the intimate closeness of God.

Ambiguous: We are not “black and white” thinkers, but instead affirm the ambiguity of experience and the value of learning to tolerate and embrace complexity and ambiguity in many aspects of human life and in the spiritual journey.

Open-minded: We are people of a questioning faith. We search for wisdom in many places and encourage people to listen to each other and to bring their honest questions to their spiritual life.

Intuitive: We are at home in the world of image, symbol, myth, ritual, and the arts. Very few Anglicans write systematic theologies. Instead we are writers, poets, pastors, and musicians.

Aesthetic: We believe that beauty is the doorway to truth and goodness and that beauty is a doorway to God.

Moderate: We avoid extremes, believing that a godly life is one that is disciplined, balanced and temperate.

Naturalistic: We have a reverence for nature and its rhythms. Anglicans believe in working to protect the natural world and its creatures.

Political: We believe that Christian life has political implications and that civic life is both a legitimate and important place for Christian’s apostolate to be expressed.

Liturgical 

The Beauty and Reverence of Worship: We worship God in the beauty of holiness. We use candles, water, color, banners, music, flowers, incense (at our Wednesday evening Mass), etc. as an expression of our piety. Such ceremonial is done to honor God, and it is understood to be prayer made visible.

The Sacramental Life of Stewardship and Discipleship: As Anglican Christians we believe that sacraments are outward and visible signs of God’s inward grace. In our very lives we too are meant to be Sacraments to God. We seek to live our lives faithfully to God’s plan for us, being good stewards of everything God has entrusted to us already, and visible signs in this world of God’s love and grace.

Justice and the Care of All People: Our devotion and worship is useless if we are not engaged with the struggles of our world.  Because of our high view of the dignity and worth of every human being, and because God and God’s love resides in every person, it is imperative that we seek wholeness for the entire creation.  The beauty of holiness must lead to a passion for justice and pastoral care.

Progressive

WHAT IS PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY?

We at St. Stephen’s have embraced a movement that began in 2006 called Progressive Christianity. The movement was a part of a larger movement called “the emerging church.” At the heart of these movements was the desire to articulate a way of being Christian that was an alternative to the Christian faith portrayed in the public realm. The leaders of Progressive Christianity had grown weary of defining their Christian faith in negative terms: “We aren’t fundamentalists. We don’t believe the Bible is the inerrant or infallible word of God. We don’t agree that Creationism should replace the science of evolution in public schools. We don’t believe that God hates gays. We don’t believe that people of other faiths are going to hell unless they convert to Christianity. We don’t deny the right of women to choose what happens to their bodies.”

Biblical Foundation: The Bible is read at every one of our progressive Christian worship services and is the foundation of our beliefs, faith, and values.

Progressive Christian Beliefs Are Rooted in Jesus: We believe in the Trinity: God the Creator, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus’ commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” is foundational.

We are more comfortable acting on our faith than talking about it: Saint Francis of Assisi’s wisdom: “preach the gospel always, and when necessary use words” resonates deeply. We believe that Christian faith is a journey, not a destination.

We think of ourselves as “work in progress” Christians: We believe that God’s will and way were revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. We believe that the historical Jesus, the Jewish Rabbi carpenter who lived in ancient Palestine, became the Christ as his followers encountered him in their midst after his earthly death. The Holy Spirit awakened them to the power of Jesus’ presence in their midst. Jesus came alive when they trusted that his love, guidance, support, comfort and challenge remained with them even though his physical body did not. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, provide the inspiration and challenge for us to live as followers of Jesus today.