An Outline of the Faith
commonly called the Catechism
(Source: The Book
of Common Prayer)
Human Nature
Q. What are we by
nature?
A. We are part of God’s
creation, made in the image of
God.
Q. What does it
mean to be created in the image of God?
A. It means that we are free
to make choices: to love, to
create, to reason, and to live
in harmony with creation
and with God.
Q. Why then do we
live apart from God and out of
harmony with
creation?
freedom and made wrong
choices.
Q. Why do we not
use our freedom as we should?
A. Because we rebel against
God, and we put ourselves in
the place of God.
Q. What help is
there for us?
A. Our help is in God.
Q. How did God
first help us?
A. God first helped us by
revealing himself and his will,
through nature and history,
through many seers and
saints, and especially through
the prophets of Israel.
God the Father
Q. What do we learn
about God as creator from the
revelation to
Israel?
A. We learn that there is one
God, the Father Almighty,
creator of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and
unseen.
Q. What does this
mean?
A. This means that the
universe is good, that it is the work of
a single loving God who
creates, sustains, and directs it.
Q. What does this
mean about our place in the universe?
A. It means that the world
belongs to its creator; and that
we are called to enjoy it and
to care for it in accordance
with God’s purposes.
Q. What does this
mean about human life?
A. It means that all people
are worthy of respect and
honor, because all are created
in the image of God, and
all can respond to the love of
God.
Q. How was this
revelation handed down to us?
A. This revelation was handed
down to us through a
community created by a
covenant with God.
The Old Covenant
Q. What is meant by
a covenant with God?
A. A covenant is a
relationship initiated by God, to which a
body of people responds in
faith.
Q. What is the Old
Covenant?
A. The Old Covenant is the one
given by God to the
Hebrew people.
Q. What did God
promise them?
A. God promised that they
would be his people to bring
all the nations of the world
to him.
Q. What response
did God require from the chosen people?
A. God required the chosen
people to be faithful; to love
justice, to do mercy, and to
walk humbly with their God.
Q. Where is this
Old Covenant to be found?
A. The covenant with the
Hebrew people is to be found in
the books which we call the
Old Testament.
Q. Where in the Old
Testament is God’s will for us shown
most clearly?
A. God’s will for us is shown
most clearly in the Ten
Commandments.
The Ten Commandments
Q. What are the Ten
Commandments?
A. The Ten Commandments are
the laws given to Moses
and the people of Israel.
Q. What do we learn
from these commandments?
A. We learn two things: our
duty to God, and our duty to
our neighbors.
Q. What is our duty
to God?
A. Our duty is to believe and
trust in God;
I To love and obey God and to bring others
to
know him;
II To put nothing in the place of God;
III To show God respect in thought, word, and
deed;
IV And to set aside regular times for worship,
prayer, and the study of God’s ways.
Q. What is our duty
to our neighbors?
A. Our duty to our neighbors
is to love them as ourselves,
and to do to other people as
we wish them to do to us;
V To love, honor, and help our parents and
family; to honor those in authority, and
to meet
their just demands;
VI To show respect for the life God has given
us; to
work and pray for peace; to bear no
malice,
prejudice, or hatred in our hearts;
and to be
kind to all the creatures of God;
VII To use all our bodily desires as God
intended;
VIII
To be honest and fair in our dealings; to seek
justice, freedom, and the necessities
of life for all
people; and to use our talents and
possessions
as ones who must answer for them to
God;
IX To speak the truth, and not to mislead
others by
our silence;
X To
resist temptations to envy, greed, and
jealousy; to rejoice in other people’s
gifts and
graces; and to do our duty for the love
of God,
who has called us into fellowship with
him.
Q. What is the
purpose of the Ten Commandments?
A. The Ten Commandments were
given to define our
relationship with God and our
neighbors.
Q. Since we do not
fully obey them, are they useful at all?
A. Since we do not fully obey
them, we see more clearly our
sin and our need for
redemption.
Sin and Redemption
Q. What is sin?
A. Sin is the seeking of our
own will instead of the will of
God, thus distorting our
relationship with God, with other
people, and with all creation.
Q. How does sin
have power over us?
A. Sin has power over us
because we lose our liberty when
our relationship with God is
distorted.
Q. What is
redemption?
A. Redemption is the act of
God which sets us free from the
power of evil, sin, and death.
Q. How did God
prepare us for redemption?
A. God sent the prophets to call
us back to himself, to
show us our need for
redemption, and to announce the
coming of the Messiah.
Q. What is meant by
the Messiah?
A. The Messiah is one sent by
God to free us from the
power of sin, so that with the
help of God we may live in
harmony with God, within
ourselves, with our neighbors,
and with all creation.
Q. Who do we
believe is the Messiah?
A. The Messiah, or Christ, is
Jesus of Nazareth, the only
Son of God.
God the Son
Q. What do we mean
when we say that Jesus is the only
Son of God?
A. We mean that Jesus is the
only perfect image of the
Father, and shows us the
nature of God.
Q. What is the
nature of God revealed in Jesus?
A. God is love.
Q. What do we mean
when we say that Jesus was
conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit and became
incarnate from the
Virgin Mary?
A. We mean that by God’s own
act, his divine Son received
our human nature from the
Virgin Mary, his mother.
Q. Why did he take
our human nature?
A. The divine Son became
human, so that in him human
beings might be adopted as
children of God, and be
made heirs of God’s kingdom.
Q. What is the
great importance of Jesus’ suffering and
death?
A. By his obedience, even to
suffering and death, Jesus
made the offering which we
could not make; in him we
are freed from the power of
sin and reconciled to God.
Q. What is the
significance of Jesus’ resurrection?
A. By his resurrection, Jesus
overcame death and opened
for us the way of eternal
life.
Q. What do we mean
when we say that he descended to the
dead?
A. We mean that he went to the
departed and offered them
also the benefits of
redemption.
Q. What do we mean
when we say that he ascended into
heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father?
A. We mean that Jesus took our
human nature into
heaven where he now reigns
with the Father and
intercedes for us.
Q. How can we share
in his victory over sin, suffering, and
death ?
A. We share in his victory
when we are baptized into the
New Covenant and become living
members of Christ.
The New Covenant
Q. What is the New
Covenant?
A. The New Covenant is the new
relationship with God
given by Jesus Christ, the
Messiah, to the apostles; and,
through them, to all who
believe in him.
Q. What did the
Messiah promise in the New Covenant?
A. Christ promised to bring us
into the kingdom of God
and give us life in all its
fullness.
Q. What response
did Christ require?
A. Christ commanded us to
believe in him and to keep his
commandments.
Q. What are the
commandments taught by Christ?
A. Christ taught us the
Summary of the Law and gave us
the New Commandment.
Q. What is the
Summary of the Law?
A. You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with
all your mind. This is the
first and the great commandment.
And the second is like
it: You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.
Q. What is the New
Commandment?
A. The New Commandment is that
we love one another as
Christ loved us.
Q. Where may we
find what Christians believe about
Christ?
A. What Christians believe
about Christ is found in the
Scriptures and summed up in
the creeds.
The Creeds
(See pages 53, 96, 326, 327, and 864 in The Book of Common Prayer.)
Q. What are the
creeds?
A. The creeds are statements
of our basic beliefs about God.
Q. How many creeds
does this Church use in its worship?
A. This Church uses two
creeds: The Apostles’ Creed and the
Nicene Creed.
Q. What is the
Apostles’ Creed?
A. The Apostles’ Creed is the
ancient creed of Baptism; it is
used in the Church’s daily
worship to recall our
Baptismal Covenant.
Q. What is the
Nicene Creed?
A. The Nicene Creed is the
creed of the universal Church
and is used at the Eucharist.
Q. What, then, is
the Athanasian Creed?
A. The Athanasian Creed is an
ancient document
proclaiming the nature of the
Incarnation and of God
as Trinity.
Q. What is the
Trinity?
A. The Trinity is one God:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit
Q. Who is the Holy
Spirit?
A. The Holy Spirit is the
Third Person of the Trinity, God at
work in the world and in the
Church even now.
Q. How is the Holy
Spirit revealed in the Old Covenant?
A. The Holy Spirit is revealed
in the Old Covenant as the
giver of life, the One who
spoke through the prophets.
Q. How is the Holy
Spirit revealed in the New Covenant?
A. The Holy Spirit is revealed
as the Lord who leads us into
all truth and enables us to
grow in the likeness of
Christ.
Q. How do we
recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in
our lives?
A. We recognize the presence
of the Holy Spirit when we
confess Jesus Christ as Lord
and are brought into love
and harmony with God, with
ourselves, with our
neighbors, and with all
creation.
Q. How do we
recognize the truths taught by the Holy
Spirit?
A. We recognize truths to be taught
by the Holy Spirit
when they are in accord with
the Scriptures.
The Holy Scriptures
Q. What are the
Holy Scriptures?
A. The Holy Scriptures,
commonly called the Bible, are the
books of the Old and New
Testaments; other books,
called the Apocrypha, are
often included in the Bible.
Q. What is the Old
Testament?
A. The Old Testament consists
of books written by the
people of the Old Covenant,
under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, to show God at
work in nature and history.
Q. What is the New
Testament?
A. The New Testament consists
of books written by the
people of the New Covenant,
under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, to set forth
the life and teachings of
Jesus and to proclaim the Good
News of the Kingdom
for all people.
Q. What is the Apocrypha?
A. The Apocrypha is a
collection of additional books
written by people of the Old
Covenant, and used in
the Christian Church.
Q. Why do we call
the Holy Scriptures the Word of God?
A. We call them the Word of
God because God inspired
their human authors and
because God still speaks to us
through the Bible.
Q. How do we
understand the meaning of the Bible?
A. We understand the meaning
of the Bible by the help of
the Holy Spirit, who guides
the Church in the true
interpretation of the Scriptures.
The Church
Q. What is the
Church?
A. The Church is the community
of the New Covenant.
Q. How is the
Church described in the Bible?
A. The Church is described as
the Body of which Jesus
Christ is the Head and of
which all baptized persons are
members. It is called the
People of God, the New Israel,
a holy nation, a royal
priesthood, and the pillar and
ground of truth.
Q. How is the
Church described in the creeds?
A. The Church is described as
one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic.
Q. Why is the Church
described as one?
A. The Church is one, because
it is one Body, under one
Head, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Q. Why is the
Church described as holy?
A. The Church is holy, because
the Holy Spirit dwells in it,
consecrates its members, and guides
them to do God’s
work.
Q. Why is the
Church described as catholic?
A. The Church is catholic,
because it proclaims the whole
Faith to all people, to the
end of time.
Q. Why is the
Church described as apostolic?
A. The Church is apostolic,
because it continues in the
teaching and fellowship of the
apostles and is sent
to carry out Christ’s mission
to all people.
Q. What is the
mission of the Church?
A. The mission of the Church
is to restore all people to
unity with God and each other
in Christ.
Q. How does the
Church pursue its mission?
A. The Church pursues its
mission as it prays and
worships, proclaims the
Gospel, and promotes justice,
peace, and love.
Q. Through whom
does the Church carry out its mission?
A. The Church carries out its
mission through the ministry
of all its members.
The Ministry
Q. Who are the
ministers of the Church?
A. The ministers of the Church
are lay persons, bishops,
priests, and deacons.
Q. What is the
ministry of the laity?
A. The ministry of lay persons
is to represent Christ and his
Church; to bear witness to him
wherever they may be
and, according to the gifts
given them, to carry on
Christ’s work of
reconciliation in the world; and to take
their place in the life,
worship, and governance of the
Church.
Q. What is the
ministry of a bishop?
A. The ministry of a bishop is
to represent Christ and his
Church, particularly as
apostle, chief priest, and pastor
of a diocese; to guard the
faith, unity, and discipline of
the whole Church; to proclaim
the Word of God; to act
in Christ’s name for the
reconciliation of the world and
the building up of the Church;
and to ordain others to
continue Christ’s ministry.
Q. What is the
ministry of a priest or presbyter?
A. The ministry of a priest is
to represent Christ and his
Church, particularly as pastor
to the people; to share
with the bishop in the
overseeing of the Church; to
proclaim the Gospel; to
administer the sacraments; and
to bless and declare pardon in
the name of God.
Q. What is the
ministry of a deacon?
A. The ministry of a deacon is
to represent Christ and his
Church, particularly as a
servant of those in need; and
to assist bishops and priests
in the proclamation of the
Gospel and the administration
of the sacraments.
Q. What is the duty
of all Christians?
A. The duty of all Christians
is to follow Christ; to come
together week by week for
corporate worship; and to
work, pray, and give for the
spread of the kingdom of
God.
Prayer and Worship
Q. What is prayer?
A. Prayer is responding to
God, by thought and by deeds,
with or without words.
Q. What is
Christian Prayer?
A. Christian prayer is
response to God the Father, through
Jesus Christ, in the power of
the Holy Spirit.
Q. What prayer did
Christ teach us?
A. Our Lord gave us the
example of prayer known as the
Lord’s Prayer.
Q. What is
adoration?
A. Adoration is the lifting up
of the heart and mind to God,
asking nothing but to enjoy
God’s presence.
Q. Why do we praise
God?
A. We praise God, not to
obtain anything, but because
God’s Being draws praise from
us.
Q. For what do we
offer thanksgiving?
A. Thanksgiving is offered to
God for all the blessings of
this life, for our redemption,
and for whatever draws us
closer to God.
Q. What is
penitence?
A. In penitence, we confess our
sins and make restitution
where possible, with the
intention to amend our lives.
Q. What is prayer
of oblation?
A. Oblation is an offering of
ourselves, our lives and
labors, in union with Christ,
for the purposes of God.
Q. What are
intercession and petition?
A. Intercession brings before
God the needs of others; in
petition, we present our own
needs, that God’s will may
be done.
Q. What is
corporate worship?
A. In corporate worship, we
unite ourselves with others to
acknowledge the holiness of
God, to hear God’s Word,
to offer prayer, and to
celebrate the sacraments.
The Sacraments
Q. What are the
sacraments?
A. The sacraments are outward
and visible signs of inward
and spiritual grace, given by
Christ as sure and certain
means by which we receive that
grace.
Q. What is grace?
A. Grace is God’s favor
towards us, unearned and
undeserved; by grace God
forgives our sins, enlightens
our minds, stirs our hearts,
and strengthens our wills.
Q. What are the two
great sacraments of the Gospel?
A. The two great sacraments
given by Christ to his Church
are Holy Baptism and the Holy
Eucharist.
Holy Baptism
Q. What is Holy
Baptism?
A. Holy Baptism is the
sacrament by which God adopts us
as his children and makes us
members of Christ’s Body,
the Church, and inheritors of
the kingdom of God.
Q. What is the
outward and visible sign in Baptism?
A. The outward and visible
sign in Baptism is water, in
which the person is baptized
in the Name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit.
Q. What is the
inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?
A. The inward and spiritual
grace in Baptism is union with
Christ in his death and
resurrection, birth into God’s
family the Church, forgiveness
of sins, and new life in
the Holy Spirit.
Q. What is required
of us at Baptism?
A. It is required that we
renounce Satan, repent of our sins,
and accept Jesus as our Lord
and Savior.
Q. Why then are
infants baptized?
A. Infants are baptized so
that they can share citizenship in
the Covenant, membership in Christ,
and redemption
by God.
Q. How are the
promises for infants made and carried out?
A. Promises are made for them
by their parents and
sponsors, who guarantee that
the infants will be
brought up within the Church,
to know Christ and be
able to follow him.
The Holy Eucharist
Q. What is the Holy
Eucharist?
A. The Holy Eucharist is the
sacrament commanded by
Christ for the continual
remembrance of his life, death,
and resurrection, until his
coming again.
Q. Why is the
Eucharist called a sacrifice?
A. Because the Eucharist, the
Church’s sacrifice of praise and
thanksgiving, is the way by
which the sacrifice of Christ is
made present, and in which he
unites us to his one offering
of himself.
Q. By what other
names is this service known?
A. The Holy Eucharist is
called the Lord’s Supper, and
Holy Communion; it is also
known as the Divine
Liturgy, the Mass, and the
Great Offering.
Q. What is the
outward and visible sign in the Eucharist?
A. The outward and visible
sign in the Eucharist is bread
and wine, given and received
according to Christ’s
command.
Q. What is the
inward and spiritual grace given in the
Eucharist?
A. The inward and spiritual
grace in the Holy Communion
is the Body and Blood of
Christ given to his people, and
received by faith.
Q. What are the
benefits which we receive in the Lord’s
Supper?
A. The benefits we receive are
the forgiveness of our sins,
the strengthening of our union
with Christ and one
another, and the foretaste of
the heavenly banquet which
is our nourishment in eternal
life.
Q. What is required
of us when we come to the Eucharist?
A. It is required that we
should examine our lives, repent
of our sins, and be in love
and charity with all people.
Other Sacramental Rites
Q. What other
sacramental rites evolved in the Church
under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit?
A. Other sacramental rites
which evolved in the Church
include confirmation,
ordination, holy matrimony,
reconciliation of a penitent,
and unction.
Q. How do they
differ from the two sacraments of the
Gospel?
A. Although they are means of
grace, they are not
necessary for all persons in
the same way that Baptism
and the Eucharist are.
Q. What is
Confirmation?
A. Confirmation is the rite in
which we express a mature
commitment to Christ, and
receive strength from the
Holy Spirit through prayer and
the laying on of hands
by a bishop.
Q. What is required
of those to be confirmed?
A. It is required of those to
be confirmed that they have
been baptized, are
sufficiently instructed in the Christian
Faith, are penitent for their
sins, and are ready to affirm
their confession of Jesus
Christ as Savior and Lord.
Q. What is
Ordination?
A. Ordination is the rite in
which God gives authority and
the grace of the Holy Spirit
to those being made bishops,
priests, and deacons, through
prayer and the laying on
of hands by bishops.
Q. What is Holy
Matrimony?
A. Holy Matrimony is Christian
marriage, in which the
woman and man enter into a
life-long union, make their
vows before God and the
Church, and receive the grace
and blessing of God to help
them fulfill their vows.
Q. What is
Reconciliation of a Penitent?
A. Reconciliation of a
Penitent, or Penance, is the rite in
which those who repent of
their sins may confess them
to God in the presence of a
priest, and receive the
assurance of pardon and the
grace of absolution.
Q. What is Unction
of the Sick?
A. Unction is the rite of
anointing the sick with oil, or the
laying on of hands, by which
God’s grace is given for the
healing of spirit, mind, and
body.
Q. Is God’s activity
limited to these rites?
A. God does not limit himself
to these rites; they are
patterns of countless ways by
which God uses material
things to reach out to us.
Q. How are the
sacraments related to our Christian hope?
A. Sacraments sustain our present
hope and anticipate its
future fulfillment.
The Christian Hope
Q. What is the
Christian hope?
A. The Christian hope is to
live with confidence in newness
and fullness of life, and to
await the coming of Christ in
glory, and the completion of
God’s purpose for the
world.
Q. What do we mean
by the coming of Christ in glory?
A. By the coming of Christ in
glory, we mean that Christ
will come, not in weakness but
in power, and will make
all things new.
Q. What do we mean
by heaven and hell?
A. By heaven, we mean eternal
life in our enjoyment of God;
by hell, we mean eternal death
in our rejection of God.
Q. Why do we pray
for the dead?
A. We pray for them, because
we still hold them in our
love, and because we trust
that in God’s presence those
who have chosen to serve him
will grow in his love, until
they see him as he is.
Q. What do we mean
by the last judgment?