What we believe

At St David’s we are part of the Church in Wales within the one holy catholic and apostolic Church and so affirm the faith as revealed in the Bible and set forth in the catholic creeds. As part of the Anglican Communion we hold that the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer are a general exposition of this faith.

Creation

We believe that God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, created the world and everything in it, that it was created good and perfect. He created each of us in his image, created for relationship with him and one another. Created to care for the world he created.

Fall

But we have rejected God, each deciding that we know best how to live our lives, rejecting his love and his ways. In rejecting him our world has broken, no longer perfectly reflecting his goodness, justice and love. The Bible calls this rejection of God and his ways sin.

Saviour

We believe that God sent his Son to us in the person of Jesus Christ. When you look at Jesus you are seeing the perfect likeness of God. Jesus came to reveal to us what God is like, to call us back to him, and show us what it means to live for God. Jesus is God with us, he knows what it is to be human, he’s lived our life, and yet the life he lived was the perfect life, one without sin.

Cross

We believe that Jesus willingly went to the cross, to die in our place. That he bore the weight of our sin and shame, all our wrongdoings, wrongsayings and wrongthinkings, all our failures to act and speak when we should have. He took them upon himself to save us from our sin, he took our punishment, gave his life as a ransom to free us from sin and death.

Resurrection

Whilst Jesus died for our sins, he didn’t stay dead. Instead on the third day he was raised to life again and the life he now lives he lives forever. Jesus offers us a share in his risen life, a life with him forever. He calls us to lay down our sin, to stop trying to do things our way, which so often leads to pain, suffering and disappointment, and to live instead for him, to live according to his ways. To stop trying to earn God’s favour or forgiveness by our own efforts and instead to trust that if we put our faith, trust and hope in him, we can receive God’s forgiveness and that through Jesus we can become God’s children, come into a real and living relationship with him.

Community

God calls us out of our old life into a new one. But he doesn’t call us to it alone. Instead he has created the church, a body of believers, a family, to build one another up, encourage one another and spur one another on. This community is the one to which all Christians belong, and it is vital for our growing in faith and holiness. In this community the Sacraments (Baptism and Communion) are celebrated, the signs and seals of this Gospel hope, means by which God meets us by his grace. Baptism is the sign of the of forgiveness of sin, the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, new birth to righteousness and entry into the Church.
Communion is the sign of the living, nourishing presence of Christ through His Spirit to His people; the memorial of His one, perfect, completed and all-sufficient sacrifice for sin; and an expression of our corporate life of sacrificial thanksgiving and service.
As a community we are to be a living sign of God’s love for the world. We are called to join with Jesus in calling the world back to God through proclaiming this message of the Gospel and to be a visible sign of God’s care for the world, by caring for those in need, challenging evil and seeking a more just world. In this we are to be like a living trailer for the world to come when Jesus returns to renew our world.

Eternity

We believe that one day Jesus will return. That on that day all who have put their faith and hope in him will be with him forever. That on that day God will judge the world, confirming his no to our sin, to living our way, and his yes to Jesus. That on that day God will renew creation, this earth and heaven will be destroyed and God will create a new heavens and a new earth. That we will at last be made perfect, cleansed from every fault and sin and that all sorrow and pain and death will pass away. That we will live forever with God, seeing him face to face, in a renewed and perfect world.

Either way, Christ’s love urges us on. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5. 14-21