At New Song Church, we joyfully share in the global and historic Christian faith rooted in the Bible and expressed in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. As a congregation of the Anglican Diocese of Canada, we uphold the doctrine of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and the Jerusalem Declaration (see below).
To explore further, download the 2019 Book of Common Prayer and our catechism, To Be a Christian.
The Gospel
The Gospel is the Good News that God loves the world and offers salvation from sin through his crucified and risen Son, Jesus Christ. (Psalm 103:1–13; Isaiah 53:4–5; John 3:16–17; 1 Corinthians 15:1–5)
God
God is one divine Being eternally existing in three divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, God is love—forever existing in perfect unity in himself. Through Jesus and by the Spirit, we are invited to share in the divine love of the Father. (Genesis 1:1–3; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 John 4:7-12)
Creation & Sin
It was God’s pleasure to create a good world and to make humans in his image to live in loving relationship with him, each other, and creation. (Genesis 1:26–31)
Through the disobedience of our first parents that relationship was broken, leaving every one of us estranged from God, guilty of transgression, spiritually dead, and unable to restore ourselves—a condition we call sin. (Romans 5:12–18)
Jesus Christ
Jesus is God the Son, eternally divine, who became fully human. In order to reconcile sinful humanity to God he was born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, willingly died on the Cross to atone for our sins, and rose again in triumph over death. He now reigns in heaven and is present with us by his Spirit as our Saviour, Lord, and Friend. (John 1:1–18; Philippians 2:5–11; 1 Peter 2:24)
Salvation
By grace through faith in Jesus, sinners are saved—by which we mean:
- Adopted into God’s family as beloved children of our Father. (Romans 8:14–17)
- Justified—declared righteous through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. (Romans 5:1–2)
- Sanctified—gradually transformed by the Holy Spirit to live in holiness. (Ephesians 2:8–10)
The Church
The Church is the worldwide body of believers united to Christ by the Spirit. It becomes visible where God’s Word is faithfully preached and Christ’s Sacraments are rightly administered. New Song is one local expression of the Church, built up by God’s grace. (1 Corinthians 12:12–27)
The Bible
The Bible is God’s inspired Word and thus trustworthy and true. Written down by human authors, it contains all things necessary for salvation through faith in Christ and it is the final authority for Christian belief and living. (2 Timothy 3:16)
The Sacraments
A sacrament is a visible sign and seal of God’s spiritual grace instituted by Jesus himself. Jesus gave his church two sacraments:
- Baptism signifies a once-for-all cleansing from sin and initiation into new life in Christ, whether received in infancy or maturity. (Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 6:1–5)
- The Lord’s Supper (also called Holy Communion) is an ongoing spiritual participation in Christ through faith by means of bread and wine. At New Song, all baptized believers with repenting hearts and personal trust in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour are invited to partake in the Lord’s Supper with us. (Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26)
Kingdom Come
Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, end evil and suffering, renew creation, and fully establish his eternal kingdom. Those who reject him will be separated from God forever; those who trust in him will live with God eternally. Until then, we wait in hope as we share the Good News of Jesus with the world. (Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; Revelation 21:1–8)
The Jerusalem Declaration
The Jerusalem Declaration emerged from the 2008 Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem, where over 1,100 delegates representing 35 million Anglicans worldwide gathered to reaffirm the authority of Scripture and the historic Anglican faith. GAFCON continues as a renewal movement committed to preserving and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit:
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, have met in the land of Jesus’ birth. We express our loyalty as disciples to the King of kings, the Lord Jesus. We joyfully embrace his command to proclaim the reality of his kingdom which he first announced in this land. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news of salvation, liberation and transformation for all. In light of the above, we agree to chart a way forward together that promotes and protects the biblical gospel and mission to the world, solemnly declaring the following tenets of orthodoxy which underpin our Anglican identity.
- We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things.
- We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.
- We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
- We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.
- We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity’s only Saviour from sin, judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and faith.
- We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.
- We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.
- We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.
- We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptise, teach and bring new believers to maturity.
- We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation, to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief and empowerment of the poor and needy.
- We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognise the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and we encourage them to join us in this declaration.
- We celebrate the God-given diversity among us which enriches our global fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide us.
- We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.
- We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus’ coming again in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise him for the way he builds up his church through his Spirit by miraculously changing lives.
Questions? Pastor Creighton would love nothing more than to talk theology over a cup of coffee. Send him an email.