We believe that after Jesus' ascension into Heaven, God the Holy Spirit was given as a gift to all believers, and equips, guides, and renews God's people whilst conforming the church to the image of Christ.
It is believed that when a person dies, the Holy Spirit is released from the body to be returned to to God while the body is returned to the earth that had sustained it through life. A traditional Anglican funeral is also a time that is used to help family and close friends come to terms with the loss of someone dear.
Salvation – Anglicans believe that every human being on earth is in need of the saving help of Jesus Christ. We believe that salvation is in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.
The Anglican Church rejects the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory while affirming that salvation is based solely on Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross, without the addition of human works. The church professes belief in the three Christian creeds: the Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, and Athanasian Creed.
Anglicanism, one of the major branches of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation and a form of Christianity that includes features of both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.
Anglicanism forms one of the branches of Western Christianity, having definitively declared its independence from the Holy See at the time of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. Many of the new Anglican formularies of the mid-16th century corresponded closely to those of historical Protestantism.
Many Roman Catholics and some Anglicans ask the saints, as well as their earthly neighbours, to pray for them. These requests for prayer may be made in personal devotion and in the prayers of the liturgy. In personal prayer, we may remember any of the faithful departed who have inspired us.
We believe in the resurrection of the dead, and that all true believers will one day experience the eternal presence of God, through Christ.
Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians pray 'to' Mary (i.e. 'invocate'). Anglican tend to pray 'with' her (i.e. 'comprecate'). With her, we pray that we may bring birth to God's word in the world.
The Church claims to be both Catholic and Reformed. It upholds teachings found in early Christian doctrines, such as the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. The Church also reveres 16th century Protestant Reformation ideas outlined in texts, such as the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Book of Common Prayer.
It has been said that the Anglican Communion rests on the three pillars of Faith, Reason and Tradition. The unique strength of Anglicanism lies in our attempts to hold in balance these three aspects of our belief.
James' is an Anglican-Catholic church where we emphasize the Catholic elements of the Anglican faith. As Anglican-Catholics we venerate the Virgin Mary, and for this reason, we pray the Rosary.
In our prayer book, during the eucharistic prayer, we pray that we worship 'with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven'. In doing so, we symbolically place ourselves around God's heavenly throne (God doesn't have a literal heavenly throne) WITH the spiritual representatives of corporate entities.
The unpardonable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
“Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother/sister here departed, we therefore commit his/her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ” ...
Anglican burial or cremation
The service culminates with the burial in a cemetery or entombment in a mausoleum. A priest will lead the Anglican burial service, giving the proper rites and reciting prayers.
Anglican use
Some Anglicans also employ the Hail Mary in devotional practice. Anglo-Catholic Anglicans use the prayer in much the same way as Roman Catholics, including use of the Rosary and the recitation of the Angelus.
Immaculate Conception refers to the mandatory Catholic dogma, pronounced in 1854, that Mary was born free of “original sin.” The Assumption refers to the belief required since 1950 that Mary was directly received, body and soul, into heaven at the end of her life. Anglicans have neither teaching.
Tongues are less associated with Anglicanism than with a form of Christianity known as "charismatic" . Many charismatic worshippers expect the work of the Holy Spirit to be seen in miracles and supernatural occurrences in their lives.
Atheists believe that there is no God and no life after death and that death is the cessation of the existence of the individual. Agnostics & atheists have reported having near-death experiences.
Many Anglicans have heard the phrase “rule of life.” A rule of life is simply the framework by which our behavior as Christians is altered as a result of our discipleship. An example of one component of a rule of life is to observe weekly fasts on the Fridays outside of Eastertide.
English saints
King Charles I of England is the only person to have been treated as a new saint by some Anglicans following the English Reformation, after which he was referred to as a martyr and included briefly in a calendar of the Book of Common Prayer.
The Church of England is a Protestant church that is also known as the Anglican Church. Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that formed in the early 16th century as a protest movement against Catholicism. Martin Luther is considered to be the founder of the Protestant faith.
The Anglican tradition is full of hidden treasures, among the chief of which is the discipline of private confession, now usually called the Reconciliation of a Penitent. Forgiveness, of course is basic to the Christian way of life, as we seek to do God's will and fall short of doing it.
Worship (latria) is properly given only to God. While Anglicans can agree that God alone is to be worshipped, many do not agree that Mary should receive a degree of veneration above the other saints; she is simply the greatest of all the saints, and she should be venerated as such.