Beliefs
The Fork Church of St Martin’s Parish is a church in the Diocese of Virginia of The Episcopal Church.
The Episcopal Church is a shoot of the Anglican branch of the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ when he sent out his disciples and apostles to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Within a hundred years, that early Church made its way to the British Isles, planting there the seeds of the Anglican Tradition of the Christian Faith. That Anglican Tradition came to America when the English explorers began to settle in the “New World” and brought their Church of England with them.
The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the hub of which is the See of Canterbury in the Church of England.
The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral
Episcopalians, like all Anglicans, affirm:
1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain “all things necessary to salvation,” and are the rule and ultimate standard of faith;
2. The Apostles’ Creed is the Baptismal Symbol, and the Nicene Creed is the sufficient statement of the Christian faith;
3. The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself—Baptism and the Supper fo the Lord (or Holy Eucharist)—are to be ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s Words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him—(water, and bread and wine, respectively).
4. The Historic Episcopate—(i.e. bishops within apostolic succession, with the assistance of priests, deacons)—should be maintained, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of the Church.
The Nicene Creed
In Church each Sunday, we recite the Nicene Creed “as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith”:
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Definition of the Union of Divine and Human Natures in the Person of Christ
Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D., Act V
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance (homoousios) with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer (Theotokos); one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the Fathers has handed down to us.
An Outline of the Faith commonly called the Catechism
can be found on pages 843-862 in the Book of Common Prayer.
The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion
can be found on pages 867-876 in the Book of Common Prayer.