Our Beliefs

Our beliefs are based on the Bible (Old and New Testaments) which we believe to be inspired (or "breathed") by God (through human authors) and to be fully trustworthy, having supreme authority in matters of faith and conduct. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness..."

Over the years, Christians have sought to express and summarise our essential beliefs in various ways:
Perhaps the earliest statement of Christian belief is Jesus is Lord

The early Christians used the sign of the fish to declare their faith, as many do to this day. The letters of the Greek word for fish - ICTHUS were used as an acrostic "creed" or statement of belief, summarising the fundamental truths of Christianity.		I = Jesus C = Christ TH = Of God Y = The Son S = Saviour

The cross has become the essential symbol of Christianity, because Jesus' death on the cross was the supreme demonstration of God's love for humanity, the place where Jesus Christ, the Son of God took on himself the sin of the world on behalf of humanity, and therefore the only means by which imperfect human beings can enter into an everlasting relationship with God - eternal life.

The Apostles' Creed is a summary of essential Christian beliefs: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again, he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church*, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. (* "holy catholic Church" refers to the universal or worldwide body of all true Christians, past present and future)

"The Methodist Church claims and cherishes its place in the holy catholic* Church, which is the Body of Christ. It rejoices in the inheritance of the apostolic faith and loyally accepts the fundamental principles of the historic creeds and of the Protestant Reformation. It ever remembers that in the providence of God Methodism was raised up to spread scriptural holiness through the land by the proclamation of the evangelical faith and declares its unfaltering resolve to be true to its divinely appointed mission.
The doctrines of the evangelical faith** which Methodism has held from the beginning and still holds are based upon the divine revelation recorded in the Holy Scriptures."
* "holy catholic Church" refers to the universal or worldwide body of all true Christians, past present and future.
** "evangelical faith" refers to a belief in the supreme authority of the scriptures, salvation by faith, the priesthood of all believers, and the ministry of the whole church.