Vision & Values

Our Vision

We are a people rooted in the life-transforming love of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, in order to be a faithful and fruitful presence in our community and world.

“It’s like all we ever do is leave” writes James K.A. Smith in On the Road with St. Augustine. Here he speaks of the restless legs and the restless hearts of this generation, a generation constantly on the move, on the move physically–moving homes, switching careers–and on the move within our very being. Never settled. The language of rooted in our Vision statement addresses this plight. It speaks to the wound of our culture by showing a more excellent way as shown in Holy Scripture: abide in my love (Jn 15:9). Abide, remain, rooted are not the words of imprisonment; they are the words of nurture and life, if we are rightly rooted. While we are all drawn to be rooted in a variety of experiences, identities, and aspirations, the true and freeing word of the Holy Scriptures is to be rooted in the love of Jesus, a love that transforms a life and transforms the world.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is not for our personal benefit alone, but so that we might be a faithful and fruitful presence to our community and world. Both of these adjectives–faithful, fruitful–are important. Emphasized to the exclusion of the other, faithful can take on the idea of rigid doctrinalists. We only have and only need our doctrine. But to overly emphasize fruitful, to the exclusion of being faithful, is to be an unanchored activist. It is to view the faith as a jumping off point; one that you depart in order to get on with the “real” work. Rather than excluding either one, we are to have them both, and in this order: faithful in order to be fruitful. For, as Jesus summed up the entire Law and Prophets, he did so by saying we are to love the Lord our God. It is from this proper orientation that then the second part comes: love your neighbor as yourself. It is only by first loving God rightly that we can love our neighbors compassionately. We are to be heavenly minded so that we can be of some earthly good.

Our Values

Gospel & Scripture

At its core, the Gospel is the proclamation of the saving work of God, accomplished by Jesus the Son, who was sustained by the Holy Spirit. Depending on one’s experience, tradition, and background, when one hears the term “the Gospel” one might be led to think that this is the story of how awful humanity is. And yet, aren’t we all so fortunate that God has an escape clause, perhaps to his displeasure. In this telling, God is an irritated, annoyed deity who, for some unknown reason, gives some people a break. This is not the Gospel, nor the heart of God as we see and hear in Holy Scripture. Rather, for God so loved… (Jn 3:16). And it is not the lovable only whom he loves, the well-connected, those who have their lives put together. His love extends beyond such human partiality. For God so loved the world…

The greatness and goodness of God is not only found in the abstract word love; it is found in that his love brings action: he sent his Son. The Beatles would have us admit that things “are getting better, getting better all the time.” And much of the (Western) world shares this opinion. With the right education, technology, and a bit more time, we can get there, wherever or whatever there might mean. But God did not give the Son, Jesus, to a world on the way up. He gave Jesus to a world, a people, who are perishing. They are perishing for they are not rooted in God who is Life. Rather, they have taken up residence in the halls of sin, separated from God. It is into that world, our world, that God sent his Son “to be lifted up from the earth on the cross (Jn 12:32), that he might save those who are perishing. So that all who might look on Jesus and believe will be saved.

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel,” says St. Paul, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Rom 1:16) And it is that Gospel that God “promised beforehand in the Holy Scriptures.” It is the Holy Scriptures “bear witness about” Jesus (Jn 5:39). Not that we should consider them as a husk to be discarded once we find the “essential data.” They are a sustaining meal. For there we pray with the Church in the Psalms; there we learn from the prophets who called God’s people back to him in repentance and encouraged their hearts with the promises of God who “is making all things new” (Is 43:19). It is in the Holy Scriptures we read of sinners and saints and our Holy God who came to save a world perishing. All those then who are trusting and entrusting themselves to him, though they depart this life, they will not depart Life Himself. For God so loved the world.

Anglican & Liturgical

“Liturgy isn’t a marginal issue in Scripture. It’s the issue…Liturgy is the Alpha and Omega of the biblical story. It’s the reason God created human beings and everything else,” writes Peter Leithart. A cursory glance at the Scriptures bears this out. The Psalms are full of worship to our God: “let all the peoples praise you, O God.” Even in the beginning the worship of God was foundational. Adam and Eve were placed in the garden-temple, a place of worship and communion with God. The object of our worship affects and shapes us: “those who make them [idols] become like them; so do all who trust in them (Ps 115:8). So does the manner in which we worship, our liturgy. As we live in an individualistic and consumeristic culture, one that focuses on personal preference above all things, thought and care should be given to our worship. The liturgical life of any Christian, and the Church, is to be steeped in the Holy Scriptures which were authored by the Holy Spirit, responding with praise and thanksgiving to the grace of God made clear in the person and work of Jesus the Son.

To say we are Anglican may seem to be redundant for our church is an Anglican church. That said, we are not accidental Anglicans. Being Anglican we are grounded in the theological convictions of the 39 Articles. These are simple (though not simplistic) statements of the Faith. Our life together is shaped by prayer in the Book of Common Prayer, wherein the Gospel structures everything and all is saturated by the Scriptures, that we might be a people who worship God in Spirit and Truth. Being Anglican also brings with it the historic and global dimensions of the Anglican Communion. We do not swim in a stream of our own making. Rather we join in with our sisters and brothers from centuries past. As our God is the one who, as Isaiah says, “is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy” (Is 57:15), our liturgy draws us out from our normal lives, reminding and reshaping us into the children of God, for so we are.

Hospitality & Rest

Hospitality and rest speaks to the desire of every human to find a place to belong, to be known, to receive care, to be strengthened, to be nourished. Seattle is sorely in need of such a community, for we are an isolated people, a fractured people, a restless people. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah flees for his life, for he has received a death threat from queen Jezebel. Alone, Elijah is exasperated, exhausted, overwhelmed, and depressed, asking the Lord that he might die. “Take away my life” he says. In this exchange of Elijah and the Lord, the focus is not placed on the frailty of Elijah’s faith; the focus is on the grace of God to this weary prophet, grace administered by bread and drink. “Behold an angel touched him and said, ‘Arise, eat.’” (1Kings 19:5) Twice Elijah heard these words; twice he was provided bread and drink “for the journey is too great for you.” Too great indeed. The journey of this life is too great for us to walk it alone. We are all searching for rest.

The rest we seek, whether we know it or not, is that we must first be reconciled to God. That reconciliation is only through the sacrifice of Jesus, and the application of the healing medicine of the Gospel which is done by the Holy Spirit. Our parish seeks to be a community of hospitality and rest. It is a hospitable community in that it is a place of healing. For healing to occur we often need to allow time to take its course. We cannot rush healing nor manufacture it. Our community is a place of welcome to all who are in need of healing and rest, regardless of your background. Healing and rest, however, can only truly occur by an encounter with Jesus.

Generous & Sent

To the dismay of some–maybe many–American Christians, to be shaped by the Gospel does not result in living the so-called American Dream. That is not why the Lord saves anyone. He is not engaged in saving the world so that each person might do as they please. Rather he has saved–and continues to save–each one for their own good, for his glory, and that each one might be a sacrificial blessing to others. At first blush, the idea of a sacrificial blessing has a nice ring to it; it can be a heart-warming depiction of life. But to live such a life comes with a cost.

In the Gospel of Mark, we read of a man who was enslaved by demons. This man dwelt among the tombs, was naked, and a terror to many, including himself. Yet, when he had an encounter with Jesus, he was freed from his enslavement. Having experienced the freedom that Jesus brought, this man who dwelt among the dead, was now at the side of the Living One who gives life. Though our modern world might look back on this man and conclude that he only had a psychological experience, the greater truth is that he experienced–he received–the freedom that only Jesus can bring. Though this man desired to remain with Jesus, Jesus directed him with these words: “And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mk 5:19) This is the work the Lord has given to the Church and one that we seek to inhabit. As a community, we are the recipients of the Lord’s mercy, not because we are owed; it is by his grace. This then shapes our posture towards those around us, regardless of who they are. For our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did not come to our world “to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45)