TRINITY: We believe in and worship the triune God of the Scriptures; one God subsisting in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as confessed in the ancient creeds of the church: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

The Father is our Creator, the Son our Redeemer and the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier or Renewer (II Cor. 13:14).

UNITED: We join with other churches who wish to be faithful to Scripture, and seek to defend, preserve, practice and spread those teachings so that God is honoured and His Name praised. We believe the church possesses a spiritual unity in Christ and in the Holy Scriptures. The churches of our federation unite with other like-minded churches. We display our unity by means of a common confession and church order, by cooperation with one another, and by exercising mutual concern for one another.

REFORMED: Our roots go back to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, more particularly to the Calvinistic branch of the Reformation. We confess all the great doctrines of the Reformation, emphasizing particularly that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (Eph. 2:8). The Scriptures alone are our infallible rule for faith and practice.

CHURCH: The building itself is not the church. It is only a place where we may worship on Sundays and engage in other activities during the week. The church is an assembly of the people of God, a gathering of believers who together make up the family of God. This comes to expression most clearly in the Sunday worship services but it is there during the week also as God’s people seek to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

 

Our heritage lies with the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century and the recovery of biblical doctrine and practice in the church led by people such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. We remain committed to confessions (doctrinal standards) produced by the Reformation, namely the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dordt. And our beliefs are also summarized in three Ecumenical creeds, the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed an the Athanasian Creed. which come from the early church and are still held to by Bible-believing Christians around the world today.

Our chief allegiance, however, is to Jesus Christ whom the Bible reveals as our Saviour and the Lord of the universe. The Bible teaches us that God did not abandon the world when humanity fell into sin, but determined in His amazing grace to save us. He sent his Son to take on our humanity and to suffer and die, paying the penalty for our sins on the cross. Through his resurrection on Easter three days later, Jesus conquered death and promises to be with us now, through his Spirit, in every circumstance of life, and to give us life with Him forever. The hope of the world is found only in believing and living in relationship with our Saviour. However, we cannot go it alone but rather need each other on this journey, so the Bible calls us to worship, learn and serve in the church, “the body of Christ”.