What we believe

St John's believes in and stands for traditional Christian faith. We believe in God, who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe Jesus is God, and that he came to this earth in order to die on the cross. In dying on the cross we believe that Jesus paid the debt of our sins - a debt we could never pay on our own. By Jesus doing this our sins have been forgiven, and God welcomes us as his children. But Jesus didn't just die - he rose again from the dead at Easter. By rising from the dead he defeated the power of death, and so for all who believe in Jesus death has no power over them. We believe that as Christians we can look forward with confidence to eternal life with God in his Kingdom, a kingdom we call Heaven. 

Our hope lays in this future. But God has given us things to help us in this life now. Through the Holy Spirit he speaks to us in the Bible to teach and guide us, and he has also given us things called Sacraments - these are signs of his continuing presence and love. Baptism (also called Christening), Holy Communion, Marriage, Confirmation, Ordination, Anointing and Confession are all sacraments, and all of them in their own special way bring us closer to our heavenly Father. Many Christians have gone before us, and we call them saints. We believe that the saints are always praying for us to be faithful to God and serve his Church, just as they did. To be a Christian, then, is to be a member of this amazing family under a loving God.