What We Believe
Christian churches vary widely in what they believe and how they use and interpret the Bible.
In some Christian churches, the emphasis is almost entirely on “going to heaven when you die.”
At St. David’s, we believe that God will save (restore, heal, make whole) everyone, and will condemn no one to eternal suffering in hell. Some leaders of the first few centuries of Christianity gave this viewpoint a Greek name: apokatastasis, or universal restoration or salvation. There is ample Biblical authority for this view (e.g., Acts 3:21).
Our emphasis is on the love of God and the teachings of Jesus: Don’t judge. Love your neighbor (and everyone is your neighbor). Have compassion for the stranger, foreigner, and refugee, and for those who are in need or are marginalized by society.
We believe that our true identity is found in God. We humans were created in the image and likeness of God, and we never lost that image and likeness; our DNA is still coded for God’s image and likeness.
We participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and are called to be “little Christs” in the world (a term used by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity). Many of us engage in regular contemplative practices such as Centering Prayer, which reconnect us with our True Selves, who we are in God. Many of us also have found the teachings of Franciscan priest Richard Rohr to be transformative.
“Incarnation is the oldest Christian story.
Through Christ, God is pouring all of God’s self into all of Creation.
To be a Christian, then, is to see Christ in every one and every thing.”
We believe that the Living Word of God often comes to us through the Bible, and we try to discern that Living Word speaking to us in our study, teaching, and preaching. At the same time, we believe that the Bible was written by fallible human beings. Those parts of the Bible that portray God as vindictive or murderous are not divinely inspired; they come from the mindsets and viewpoints of their human authors, and reflect the times and places in which those authors lived.
In addition to the Bible, we find Tradition, Reason, Experience, and Nature reliable channels through which the Word, Wisdom, Spirit, and Presence of God come to us. (Nature has often been called “God’s first Bible.”)
St. David’s of the Hills is a member congregation of the Episcopal Church, a Christian denomination with its roots in the Church of England. Our diocese is the Episcopal Church in Colorado. The Episcopal Church ordains both women and men, and those who identify as LGBTQIA; and we witness and bless marriages not only between men and women, but between LGBTQIA partners. We belong to the worldwide Anglican Communion, the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
In the Episcopal Church, you will find people who have differing beliefs; our unity is not in common doctrine but in common prayer.