What We Believe
Our Pillars
Our grounding story of the Emmaus road leads us to three pillars
rooted in Jesus’ death and resurrection:
Walk Together
We are made for relationships and built for community. Human life is meant to mirror God’s own likeness as a fellowship of unity amidst diversity. Emmaus is about journeying through life together.
Follow Jesus
We are all shaped by a story, the question is which one? The gospel story invites us to be shaped, over a lifetime, first and foremost by the person and presence of Jesus.
Tell The Story
We are made witnesses of very good news when we meet Jesus. He sends his people to tell the story in both words and actions, demonstrating and proclaiming the reality of Jesus’ kingdom in the world.
Our Beliefs
We stand in the stream of historic, orthodox Christian faith. We therefore affirm the traditional credal claims of the church:
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I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen. -
We believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;
of the same essence as the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.And we believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life.
He proceeds from the Father and the Son,
and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
He spoke through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
and to life in the world to come. Amen.
Our Liturgy
What is a Liturgy? The word liturgy might sound like a stuffy religious word, but it means work of the people. It is the work people do in worship. We all worship something, the question is what holds our gaze, ultimate affection and loyalty?
Our liturgy is a set of practices that form our habits in worship and form our hearts in what we love and want, namely the glory of God and longing for his kingdom. A liturgy is a way of recentering our lives around what is most important. A liturgy re-narrates our stories inside God’s story.
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A selection from the Psalms, the Bible’s prayer and song book, that calls our attention toward who God is. Our worship of God begins not with ourselves, but God’s address to us.
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Singing is one of the ways our theology (thinking about God) becomes worship (loving God) in experience. We sing songs that focus on who God is as well as how we relate to Him based on what He has done for us in Christ. Singing can involve praise, lament, prayer and rehearsing the story to remind our hearts what is true.
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The collect, taken from the Book of Common Prayer is a collective prayer, spoken aloud and with the church across the globe. The collect voices our relationship to God rooted in God’s own Being as the Trinity and reminds us that we are among the one family of God across history and the world.
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Each month we offer what is called Prayers of the People. These are written prayers for the community, the suffering, the church and the world. In prayers of the people we are reminded of our priestly calling to intercede on behalf of others for Christ’s sake.
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Confession and absolution provides a moment for us to reflect on what has gone wrong in the Story, and in our own stories. Our confession names our need for forgiveness and salvation. Absolution gives language to and affirms what Christ has won for us in his death and our victory over sin, death and the devil through his resurrection.
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Each month we aim to give voice to the work of God in the lives of people in the church, who might have a story of how God has met them, or ways God is using them in His mission.
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While only a couple of moments, the “turn and greet” time is liturgical because it reminds us that we are saved by Christ into a family and that our experience of Christ is always as a community.
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We stand, as we are able, to hear God’s word and receive it with thanksgiving.
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Our time of teaching expounds the Scriptures, focuses us on Christ and aims to help us identify with what God has said in the Bible. and what the implications are for us today.
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The center of our gathering is the gospel on display in the eucharist (Lord’s supper), taken weekly. This engages us in a posture of receiving what is freely offered, nourishing our common life of faith on the proclamation of the Lord’s death until he comes, participating in Christ in a meal.
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The goal of our liturgy is not mere inspiration or acquiring new information, but a response to the gospel that trusts, hears, obeys and praises God.
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We end every gathering with a Trinitarian blessing that sends the church on its mission in the world.