A Declaration of Faith
A Declaration of Faith
A Declaration of Faith
God made human beings along with all the other creatures
and charged them to care for the earth
and all that lives on it.
We acknowledge we share in the interdependence
that binds together all God's creation.
Yet God gives us power to rule and tame,
to order and reshape the world.
We hold the earth in trust
for future generations of living things.
The Lord forbids us to plunder, foul, and destroy the earth.
The Lord expects us to produce, to consume, to reproduce
in ways that make earth's goodness available to all people
and reflect God's love for all creatures.
The Lord bids us use our technical skills
for beauty, order, health, and peace.
We affirm that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of life,
the Renewer and Perfecter of God's people,
the One who makes real in us what God has done for us.
(8) The Spirit is one with the Father and the Son.
In the presence of the Holy Spirit
the first Christians experienced God's own presence,
not a power different from God or less than God.
In Jesus Christ they met God himself,
not a second God or one who is only like God.
Yet they worshiped with the people of Israel
one God alone.
Reflecting on this mystery,
the ancient church formulated the doctrine of the Trinity.
We believe with the church through the centuries
that God is what he has shown himself to be
in his story with his people:
One God who is the Creator and Sustainer,
the Savior and Lord,
the Giver of life within, among, and beyond us.
We serve humankind
by discerning what God is doing in the world
and joining him in his work.
We risk disagreement and error
when we try to say what God is doing here and now.
But we find guidance in God's deeds in the past
and his promises for the future,
as they are witnessed to in Scripture.
Christ teaches us
to go beyond legal requirements
in serving and helping our neighbor,
to treat our neighbor's needs as our own,
to care passionately for the other's good,
to share what we have.
It is part of our discipline
to live in simplicity,
avoiding greed and luxury
that threaten our neighbor's survival.
We are obligated to speak the truth in love,
to listen with patience and openness,
to love our enemies,
to accept the risk and pain
which love involves.
Jesus is Lord!
He has been Lord from the beginning.
He will be Lord at the end.
Even now he is Lord.