What We Believe

We believe in One God, the God of all creation.
As God creates everything that is, God pauses to say, “It is good.”
We believe that means God loves all creation,
including each and everyone of us.

In this we rejoice!

We believe that God’s nature is most fully revealed
in the life and ministry of our brother, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus shared table fellowship with all sorts of people…
saints, sinners, and outcasts. People like us.
Hence, we welcome all people…
saints, sinners, and outcasts…
people like us…our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In this we rejoice.

We come looking for answers…for certainty.
In a community formed by the Anglican/Episcopal tradition…
we often find God resides in the questions…
not in the answers.
We are a community of faith that welcomes questions.

In this we rejoice.

We live in a quickly changing world…
and in an even more quickly changing neighborhood.

Change often challenges our faith.

We believe that God the Holy Spirit
will guide us in how to change
to continue sharing God’s love
with all our neighbors, both old and new.

In this we rejoice.

We believe God may be calling you to join us
on this wonderful journey of life and faith.
You are welcome here.

And in this we rejoice!

Our Community Mission

We are a community of faith that believes in God through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and through the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit. We uphold this faith as Christians in the Episcopal Church as part of the Anglican tradition. Our core values as a congregation include encountering God in scripture, tradition and prayer; embracing the risks of ministry and leadership; seeking and serving Christ in all people; celebrating the transforming power of the Holy Spirit; and working for a just and inclusive world.

As a member of the broader Episcopal Church, we “believe in a loving, liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As constituent members of the Anglican Communion in the United States, we are descendants of and partners with the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church, and are part of the third largest group of Christians in the world.

We believe in following the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the world.” (What We Believe, The Episcopal Church)

LGBTQ+ Inclusion

With the General Convention of the Episcopal Church we affirm and welcome the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming children of God in the life, leadership, and sacraments of the church.

From The Episcopal Church, “LGBTQ+ in the Church”

In 1976, the General Convention of The Episcopal Church declared that ‘homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church’ (1976-A069). Since then, faithful Episcopalians have been working toward a greater understanding and radical inclusion of all of God’s children.

In 2003, the first openly gay bishop was consecrated; in 2009, General Convention resolved that God’s call is open to all; in 2012, a provisional rite of blessing for same-gender relationships was authorized, and discrimination against transgender persons in the ordination process was officially prohibited; and in 2015, the canons of the church were changed to make the rite of marriage available to all people, regardless of gender.

From, “What We Believe,” published by The Episcopal Church

We have a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to tell and exemplify God’s love for every human being; women and men serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church. Laypeople and clergy cooperate as leaders at all levels of our church. Leadership is a gift from God, and can be expressed by all people in our church, regardless of sexual identity or orientation.

Immigrant Rights

Recognizing Christ’s call to hospitality, the Biblical command to welcome the stranger among us, and the demands of our baptismal vow to respect the dignity of every human being, we have declared St. Ann’s a Solidarity Congregation; and we commit to undertake the following:

  • A public expression of our support for immigrants and refugees.

  • Consistent use of liturgy and prayer to reflect on and theologically support immigrant and refugee communities during our worship.

  • Recruit members to participate in the Nashville Sanctuary Network’s rapid response training.

  • Support other Nashville Sanctuary congregations and communities by participating in supply drives, fundraising for legal fees, and helping families recover from the loss of a breadwinner to deportation or detention.

Antiracism

As Christians who believe that we must love our neighbors as ourselves and that all humans are our neighbors, St. Ann’s condemns racism and all the horrors that stem from it. We affirm the words of our Baptismal Covenant that we “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”

We pledge to be a force for justice and equality, standing against the modern forms of racism and we confess and repent that our parish has benefited from slavery, through both property and labor in the past.