What We Believe

Our Theological Distinctives

Like all of the branches of Christ's Church that came out of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformed Episcopal Church has a received body of Doctrine and Church Government. Our received body of doctrine is called the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. They were first composed in 1562 and have been the received body of doctrine of Anglican churches since 1573.

Read the Thirty-nine Articles.

REC Declaration of Principles

Adopted, December2, 1873

I. The Reformed Episcopal Church, holding "the faith once delivered unto the saints," declares its belief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God, and the sole Rule of Faith and Practice; in the Creed "commonly called the Apostles' Creed;" in the Divine institution of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; and in the doctrines of grace substantially as they are set forth in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion.

II. This Church recognizes and adheres to Episcopacy, not as a Divine right, but as a very ancient and desirable form of Church polity.

III. This Church, retaining a Liturgy which shall not be imperative or repressive of freedom in prayer, accepts The Book of Common Prayer, as it was revised, proposed, and recommended for use by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, A.D. 1785, reserving full liberty to alter, abridge, enlarge, and amend the same, as may seem most conducive to the edification of the people, "provided that the substance of the faith be kept entire."

IV. This Church condemns and rejects the following erroneous and strange doctrines as contrary to God's Word:

First, That the Church of Christ exists only in one order or form of ecclesiastical polity:

Second, That Christian Ministers are "priests" in another sense than that in which all believers are a "royal priesthood:"

Third, That the Lord's Table is an altar on which the oblation of the Body and Blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father:

Fourth, That the Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is a presence in the elements of Bread and Wine:

Fifth, That Regeneration is inseparably connected with Baptism.

What We're For...

As a parish, Emmanuel Reformed Episcopal Church is for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are for the faithful proclamation of the whole counsel of God as divinely revealed in the 66 canonical books of the Bible. We are for public and private morality that is in accordance with the clear teaching of the Bible...not that which changes with the times. We are for putting our faith into action by helping those unable to help themselves. We are for orderly, God centered worship. Finally, we are for ordering the life of the Church God's way, not the way that seems right to man. In short, we are for what God has shown us He is for in His word, the Bible. No more, no less.