Document 2015.04.001:
Amendments regarding our faith
Eric Michel Ministries International a Catholic Christian Chaplaincy Ministry
Our type of church government is the Episcopal Policy
We are characterized as a Catholic Christian fellowship
We are a faith-based chaplaincy community comprised of male and female laity and clergy, people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, Catholic theological beliefs, and ministry practices.
Our roots are: Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic
Our Faith:
We consider Christ as the supreme authority. Under the Great Commission, we spread his teachings to all.
We believe in one God the Father, of whom are all things and we in him, manifested in one Lord the Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him, revealed in one Spirit of Truth, who receives of Christ, shows the Redeemer unto us, and glorifies the Saviour. We believe in One God, infinite in all his perfections; and that these perfections are all modifications of infinite, adorable, incomprehensible and unchangeable Love.
We believe it a faithful saying that they who believe in God should be careful to maintain good works, for these things are good and profitable unto men. As the Seal of Faith can only be impressed by Practice, we mutually desire that a good confession may be witnessed, by meeting together on the First day of the week, to Read the Scriptures, Sing Praises, and Hear the Preached Word, accompanied by Prayer, Supplication and Thanksgiving through the Mass.
We believe that there is One Mediator between God and man, the Christ, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; who, by giving himself a ransom for all, hath redeemed them to God by his blood; and who, by the merit of his death, and the efficacy of his Spirit, will finally restore the whole human race to happiness.
We believe in the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to make known to sinners the truth of their salvation, through the medium of the Liturgy, the Holy Scriptures, and to reconcile the hearts of the children of men to God, and thereby dispose them to genuine holiness.
We are naturalistic and rationalists, rejecting the conflict between faith and science. We are a form of Christian faith that accept the scientific evidence of a cosmos and earth billions of years old, in which life forms evolved via natural processes. We embrace scientific discoveries in meaningful, faith-enriching, life-enhancing ways. Our quest bridges traditional wisdom with scientific revelation.
We believe in the obligation of the moral law, as to the rule of life; and we hold that the love of God manifests to man in a Redeemer, is the best means of producing obedience to that law, and promoting a holy, active and useful life.
The Bible is a powerful work of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is one method of studying the teachings of Christ, and the second method is the Catholic catechism. We look upon the Bible as a collection of narratives that explain, epitomize, or symbolize the essence and significance of Catholic understanding. We believe that all Scripture, as contained in the Old and New Testaments, is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to contain a revelation of the perfections and will of God, and the rule of faith and practice.
In the fellowship of one Spirit of Franciscan Charity and judging no man’s conscience, every man is to be fully persuaded in his own mind whether he cometh unto or abstaineth from Baptism or the Lord’s Supper; and whensoever a Minister the Priestly Pastor is requested to administer the one or celebrate the other, let not him who receiveth or eateth judge his Brother.
As members of Society and of Families, in the Social and Relative Connections, we mutually desire to be found in practical fellowship with the Precepts of the Lord the Christ, the pattern he hath set before us, and the admonitions of his Apostles and Evangelists; and every Brother or Sister who walketh not orderly is to be admonished in meekness and love for the adorning of the doctrine of all things.
Creeds
The Ecumenical creeds is an umbrella term used in the Western Church to refer to the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed and, less commonly, the
Athanasian Creed. The ecumenical creeds are also known as the Universal creeds. These creeds are accepted by almost all mainstream Christian
denominations in the West, including Reformed churches, the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican churches and Lutheran churches. Many Methodist
churches accept the Nicene Creed and Apostles' Creed.
The Eastern Orthodox Church accepts the Nicene Creed but does not use the Apostles' Creed or the Athanasian Creed.
A creed by definition is a summary or statement of what one believes. It originates from the Latin credo meaning "I believe". The purpose of a creed is to
act as a yardstick of correct belief. A creed is an epitome, not a full definition, of what is required for orthodoxy. It was hoped that by memorizing this
summary of the faith, lay people without extensive theological training would still be able to recognize deviations from orthodox doctrines based on the Bible as interpreted in the Christian tradition. The term ecumenical can refer to efforts by Christians of different church traditions to develop closer relationships and better understandings. The term is also often used to refer to efforts towards the visible and organic unity of different Christian churches in some form.
Source: Wikipedia
Picture: Pixabay OpenClipart-Vectors
Withe Light = Holy Spirit, the Grace of God
The Prism is the Church who is engage employing the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT
Rainbow = Denominations
Christians without creeds
Some Christian denominations, and particularly those descending from the Radical Reformation, do not profess a creed. This stance is often referred to
as "non-creedal". The Religious Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, consider that they have no need for creedal formulations of faith.
The Church of the Brethren and other Schwarzenau Brethren churches also espouse no creed, referring to the New Testament, as their "rule of faith and
practice." Jehovah's Witnesses contrast "memorizing or repeating creeds" with acting to "do what Jesus said". Unitarian Universalists do not share a
creed.
Many evangelical Protestants similarly reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even while agreeing with some creeds' substance. The Baptists have been non-creedal "in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another". While many Baptists are not opposed to the ancient creeds, they regard them as "not so final that they cannot be revised and re-expressed. At best, creeds have a penultimate about them and, of themselves, could never be the basis of Christian fellowship". Moreover, Baptist "confessions of faith" have often had a clause such as this from the First London (Particular) Baptist Confession (Revised edition, 1646):
Also, we confess that we now know but in part and that are ignorant of many things which we desire to and seek to know: and if any shall do us that friendly part to show us from the Word of God that we see not, we shall have cause to be thankful to God and to them. Similar reservations about the
use of creeds can be found in the Restoration Movement and its descendants, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Churches of Christ, and the Christian churches and churches of Christ. Restorationists profess "no creed but Christ".
Many people said (the Apostles Creed), but they understood what it was saying and what they meant by that quite differently. No matter how hard they
tried, they could not close out this perennial debate. They cannot establish a consensus and they could not agree on the meaning of that phrase which
had been once "delivered to the saints." It did not occur to these people that the task they were trying to accomplish was not a human possibility, that the mystery of God, including the God they believed they had met in Jesus, could not be reduced to human words and human concepts or captured inside human creeds. Nor did they understand that the tighter and more specific their words became, the less they would achieve the task of unifying the church. All creeds have ever done is to define those who are outside, who were not true believers; and thus their primary achievement has been to set up eternal conflict between the "ins" and the "outs," a conflict that has repeatedly degenerated into the darkest sort of Christian behavior, including imperialism, torture, persecution, death and war.
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