Our Values

Mission:

- We are under the authority of scripture and place special emphasis on the reading and study of God’s Word. The Bible shapes our imagination, worship, values, practices and common life.
- Shaped by our fellowship in the Global Anglican Communion, we support a Confessional Anglicanism that recaptures the ancient and biblical truths of the grace and good news of the gospel.
- We are rooted in the rhythms and beauty of worship shaped over the centuries – we have a story and we have a history that help us to be rooted and relevant. We are sacramental and liturgical, practicing holistic Christian formation that involves the head, the heart, and the body, emphasizing imagination as well as information, and producing disciples with gospel-shaped desires. We believe that liturgy is a form of hospitality, enabling people from all walks of life to participate together in worship.
- We are completely dependent on the Holy Spirit’s presence, power and movement.

- There is a directional flow of spiritual vitality from the Anglican Church in the Global South, specifically Rwanda, where the impulse to gospel proclamation and basic faithfulness is strong.
- This spiritual vitality encourages and empowers us to be a Kingdom presence in our communities in a gospel centered, holistic, and relational way.
- These active relationships across cultures provide a prophetic mirror to our own needs and draw us into a deeper understanding of the gospel.
- We are encouraged, humbled and transformed by sharing a common story which spans culture and geography with Christians from across the globe.

- We are committed to an understanding of the gospel that brings God’s renewal of all things, including personal, societal, and cultural, as well as creation itself, through Jesus Christ, the risen King. This renewal is a gift of grace, and not earned.
- We believe mission is holistic and that we are called to take risks for the Kingdom, serving creatively, sacrificially and compassionately.
- We love to see God at work in people and institutions. While we have modest expectations of our own abilities, we have enormous expectations for what the Lord will do.
- Our churches are programmatically simple, minimizing bureaucracy; community oriented, embracing the truth that healthy churches are inherently inefficient, because relationships are inefficient; led by equippers who seek to empower people to fully utilize their gifts to be the presence of Christ in the world.
- We are flexible and committed to movement over structure, favoring organic over programmatic growth.

We are grounded in the Good News of what God has accomplished for our salvation through Jesus in order to restore us and eventually destroy all results of sin. We embrace the mission of being part of the renewal of all things – and we acknowledge that we have no ability, in ourselves, to be part of this work. We rely on what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do – which means that we engage out of a place of rest. This also enables us to be generous with our resources.
The diocese is to serve existing churches and plant new churches. The work of the church is carried out by the Kingdom of priests – there is no division between clergy and laity, there is distinction of offices, but all are ministers. We prioritize relationships as all ministry is relational. We need each other to be the Kingdom of God, we need our shared strengths and weaknesses.
We value a passionate love for Jesus along with deep theological engagement. This allows us to engage with grace, to speak the truth in love, to be open to learning and correction, and to seek the Kingdom as a higher good than winning a debate. We want to have a gospel posture as we hold gospel positions.

Our mission drives our structure: That is, the Diocese believes that administrative structures must catalyze mission, not consume resources unnecessarily. Therefore, we will only hire staff and develop processes and structures that are necessary to being effective in our mission. We also believe in the principle of subsidiarity: things that can be done or decided at the local or church level should not be done or decided by the diocese. This also affects our administrative and programming decisions.
Our mission drives our strategies. We need to adapt to different circumstances without compromising our mission and values. We don’t do things because that is the way we have always done them; there is an openness to doing things differently that still uphold our identity, mission, and values.
We want to not just create opportunities for new leaders, but to be active in raising up new leaders. Our goal is the multiplication of leaders (lay and ordained) for the multiplication of the gospel.