Eighteen things (most) Episcopalians believe (on good days):
1. Warning: Some Episcopalians will take issue with some of what follows. Most Episcopalians believe more or less these 18 things! So this list is not the last word. Ever!
2. God is Creator. God is creative love. God is life-giving Spirit. God is thus three “persons” of one “being,” Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
3. God is manifested vividly, fully, and compellingly, in Jesus of Nazareth, who lived, taught, healed, was killed, and raised to life. He is God’s Son, the “Word” made flesh.
4. Jesus remains among us to invite resurrection from the many forms of death around us and in us and to offer us the gift of life.
5. Evil is real. We are capable of doing evil. In our baptism we renounce it. And God transforms evil into God’s own good and gives us the will and strength to transform it in ourselves and in the world.
6. Community with Jesus as the center, grounded in the life of God, enlivened by the Spirit, is a gift from God. The institutional church is a major way that community is accessible to us. So even as an institution the church is a sacred thing. However, God is not captive to the fallibilities of the church!
7. Christian community becomes what it is in sacramental acts: specific, tangible, and material things in which the mystery of God’s love is made known to us, especially in Baptism and the Lord's supper or Eucharist. That’s why we believe that sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace. (Catechism, Book of Common Prayer, p. 857). Those “religious” sacraments help us to see everything sacramental in the world. Through them we can see and experience God’s boundless generosity.
8. Christian community does not exist for itself, but to invite the transformation of the world. The community becomes what it is not only in “sacramental acts” but in reaching out with Christ's love, justice and mercy to heal and liberate. Christian community works best when it is self-monitoring.
9. Uniformity of beliefs and disciplines is not what we are about. Marching in lockstep with each other over every theological issue can be oppressive and stifles the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Our differences disclose the variety of gifts the Spirit gives. Each of us is on our own spiritual journey and our personal relationships with God are unique. So we don't tell each other what to do or make judgments about each other. We do try to be supportive of each other. We try to be “a church in which there are no outcasts.” We struggle hard to overcome those fears which keep us from being fully inclusive. God is not through with us yet. So we strive to be a community in which we have “in all things essential, unity; in all things nonessential, diversity; in all things, charity.”
10. On the whole, truth is likely to be found more in what is affirmed than in what is denied and more in “both/ands” than in “either/ors.” Hence, Episcopalians try to be defined by “what they are for” as opposed to “what they are against.” So black and white thinking and thinking dominated by negations are not helpful. A negative spirit does not build up the body.
11. The Bible contains all things necessary for salvation. The Scriptures speak God's truth with special power and our God's Word. Because the Bible is God’s word, it is a living document. Consequently, simplistic and literalistic interpretations may miss the point of what God says to us. Read through the lens of tradition and reason, the Bible speaks to us anew with each generation.
12. Tradition is a treasure through which we can discern God's future, not something with which to enshrine our past. There is much rich insight in the tradition which helps us to look forward to God's future. “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” (source unknown)
13. Reason is a gift from God. We should accept it even in religious matters. That’s why we affirm the importance of an ongoing conversation between the voices of faith and those of science, art, economics and public life.
14. Some of us know conversion as a specific, sudden experience. Most of us know it as a life-long process. Those who know it as a specific experience find that it is authenticated in a life-long process of growth. Regardless of our experience, we know that there is always room for spiritual growth and that God is never through with us, no matter where we are in our spiritual journey.
15. Anyone who claims to speak for God should do so only after listening in much silence.
16. We are not the “one, true church.” But we are part of it! The Church catholic has many parts. In affirming loyalty to our own tradition we do not disparage others. Rather, we should honor and respect the other Christian traditions.
17. We believe in the resurrection. By this we mean that God will raise us from death in the fullness of our being that we may live with Christ in the communion of the saints. Therefore, our assurance as Christians is that nothing, not even death, shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. (Catechism, Book of Common Prayer, p. 862).
18. We affirm the Great Commandment of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength. We are to also love our neighbor as our self. In God’s economy, there are no exceptions to this Commandment, even between fans and alumni of the University of Alabama and Auburn University on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. (This is not in the Catechism, but is important to illustrate the true gravity of Christian grace).