What does "anglican" mean?

Anglicans trace their heritage back to the English Reformation and, before that, to the ancient Church during the time of the Apostles. We're the third largest group of Christians in the world, and Grace Church is part of this body of believers - locally through the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh and nationally through the Anglican Church in North America, and internationally through the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (known as GAFCON), which includes Anglicans from 53 countries.

We believe that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and authoritative for our belief and practice. We affirm the Apostle's, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. We believe that we really experience the grace of God in and through Baptism and Holy Communion, and that hearing the Good News in Scripture and celebrating these two Sacraments are the primary ways that we are brought to faith in Jesus. Because of this belief, our worship is saturated in and shaped by Scripture, and we celebrate Holy Communion each week.

Our hope is that the weekly experience of God’s love for us in Holy Scripture, the preaching of the Good News, and receiving Jesus in the mystery of Holy Communion will continually call us back to the basic claim of Christianity: Jesus died on the Cross for the sins of the whole world, defeated Death by His Resurrection and, because of this, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). We seek to know ourselves as beloved by God as his children, who’ve been set free and given abundant life in Christ.

If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to one of our clergy. They love talking about this stuff.