When we say we are an Anglican or Episcopal Church we mean that we were born into the family of churches that grew out of the Church of England now known as the Anglican Communion. The Church of England is a reformation Church, that is, it split with the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century over matters of theology. Other reformation churches include the Presbyterian Churches and the Lutheran Churches. We believe that Christians are saved solely by God’s grace which we apprehend only through faith. We believe that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary for our salvation. We claim the Crucifixion of Christ to be completely sufficient payment for our sins. We are saved by faith and not by works. In other words, when Jesus died on the cross he paid for all of our sins completely and opened the way to heaven for all of us. The only requirement for us is faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. While we have embraced the reformation principles we have also retained ancient worship practices. Our services are similar in structure to other churches who have continued to use the ancient liturgies of our early Christian ancestors. Therefore our worship services more closely resemble the Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran and Old Catholic services than they do Baptist or Congregationalist services. We celebrate in the same way that Christians have celebrated as far back as the historical records allow us to see.

Anglican/Episcopal churches are often referred to as “the people of two books.” This refers to the fact that we worship with the Bible as our sole source of truth and with the Book of Common Prayer which guides our worship together. The Bible is God’s revelation to us. The Book of Common Prayer provides structure and form to our prayers, worship services, wedding, burial and ordination services. In our day, a conflict has arisen about whether to follow the ancient teachings of the Church and the plain sense meaning of the Holy Scriptures or embrace a new set of ideologies based on a modern (hermeneutic of suspicion) way of reading the Bible. At the time of this writing the American expression of Anglicanism is deeply divided over the matter and in some places the traditionalist churches and dioceses have split from the modernist churches and dioceses. In order to distinguish themselves from the modernist liberal churches they have chosen to call themselves “Anglican” rather than “Episcopal.” Trinity Church, Beaver is a traditionalist church.

We hope that this very short, very basic description has been helpful in explaining who we are. Additional resources are available. Our prayer book contains a lot of information about who we are and what we believe. Our library has a number of useful resources. And our pastor, Scott Homer, is always ready to answer any questions you might have.