Parish Goals & Priorities

Our goals and priorities are a reflection of our parish values as an orthodox Anglican parish and emerge out of our desire to be faithful witnesses of Christ our Savior and the mission he has given to his church.

+ Clergy and lay leadership committed to the exclusivity of Christ as the way, the truth and the life for lost sinners (John 14:6).

+ Clergy and lay leadership committed to the primacy of the law and gospel mission of the Church; the preaching of Christ crucified for sinners (Luke 24:45-49). In order that this mission be neither confused with or diminished by our own temporal priorities, however well-intentioned they may appear to us; our own pragmatic methods to supplant Christ's means of grace; or our own fleshly desire to conform to the spirit of the age. 

+ Clergy and lay leadership committed to the clarity of doctrinally sound preaching, teaching, and practice in accord with the Holy Scriptures and the Anglican formularies as faithful expositions of the Scriptures; holding firm to the Word that they may instruct in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it (Titus 1:9). 

+ Liturgical worship that conforms to and draws richly upon the Book of Common Prayer, faithfully reflecting the inherited liturgical tradition of Christ's church. 

+ Liturgical worship and preaching that adheres to either the three-year lectionary found in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer or the historic one-year lectionary found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

+ Liturgical worship that incorporates the ancient and contemporary mainstay hymnody of Christ's church along with edifying service music to teach the foundational hymns of the church to the people, to extol sound doctrine  and thereby catechize the people through song, and to elevate our praise and thanksgiving so as to reflect the objective beauty of heavenly worship through drawing upon he heights of human musical achievement by artists committed to the mastery of their craft by the glory of God.

+ Clergy and lay leadership that take seriously the aesthetic of the Church building both inside and out as the place where we meet in Word and Sacrament the God who is and therefore defines objective beauty (Psalm 96:8). 

+  Liturgical worship, preaching, and the teaching that extols and elevates both the preached Word and the visible Word of the sacraments not uplifting one to the diminishment of the other.

+ Liturgical worship that allows for or even celebrates formality (i.e. Vestments, Processions, Chanting, Kneeling, Bowing Toward the Altar, Making the Sign of the Cross, Observance of Holy Days, Even Occasional Use of Incense, etc.) but that does not obscure the evangelical clarity of law and gospel proclamation; the simplicity of preaching Christ crucified for sinners. 

+ A muscular church manifest as a distinctive society for the building up of believers where Christians will find a stronghold for their faith through the renewing of their minds by the unchanging Word of the Scriptures amidst the lies of the culture around them. 

+ A muscular church manifest as a distinctive society for the building up of believers where Christians will find mutual consolation as they invest their time, talents and resources in he temporal and eternal needs of their brothers and sisters of all ages through a culture of generosity, hospitality, strong relationships, and prayer for one another. 

+ A muscular church manifest as a distinctive society for the building up of believers where Christians will find the blessing of common life together as redeemed members of Christ's eternal family through regular worship, prayer, Bible study, and social gatherings. 

+ A muscular church visible and engaged in the community around us, consistent with the mission of Christ's church to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins (i.e. by taking our liturgical worship and preaching outside the walls of the church, by being present at community events, etc.). 

+ A muscular church visible and engaged in the community around us to love and serve our neighbors with wise generosity in light of God's life-ordering law for human flourishing (i.e. Soup Kitchen, Community Picnic, Supporting the Crisis Pregnancy Center, etc.), yet not neglecting the temporal and eternal needs of its members. 

+ Muscular Christians engaged in their communities, as clergy and lay leadership equip them with confidence in the efficacy of the Word to engage in relational evangelism with those around them. 

+ Muscular Christians engaged in the community around them as clergy and lay leadership nurture their ministry interests in love and service to the neighbors locally and/or globally, both through the church, but as much so, in their various stations apart from the formal ministry of the church.