The Anglican Way
What do we believe?

The Anglican tradition is unique among others in that it never set out to formulate answers to all of the potential theological questions that could arise like some of the various "Confessions" (or what a denomination believes). What we did was to establish some fence posts to keep Christians with various understandings of the faith in one united family, while setting clear boundaries on what we don't believe. Below are some of those fenceposts that describe Anglican belief and practice and here is a good article from the Anglican Compass which gets into it a little further.

The Three Creeds
A summary of the Christian faith

We believe in the catholic (whole or universal) church creeds which consist of the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. These are statements that were drawn from the Bible as a summary of the Christian faith and are shared by Christians across the world. Lutherans, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox all hold to these creeds (and most Christians outside of these traditions agree with the beliefs within them!).

The 39 Articles of Religion
A statement of beliefs from The Reformation

These are the main fenceposts that keep the members of the Anglican tradition together. They set out to explain our position at the Reformation compared to other groups, yet did not attempt to overexplain the mysteries of God. They are a key part of our "formularies," those documents which make us uniquely Anglican. You can read them here as they are accepted by the Anglican Communion. Our doctrine is reflected in our prayer book and is a “fence” to keep pastors from straying into heresy or anything that takes away from Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.

The Book of Common Prayer
Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

If Latin is Greek to you, that translates roughly to "What we pray, is what we believe." That is one of the reasons our Book of Common Prayer is so important to the way we conduct our worship. It arranges parts of the Bible (and includes all 150 psalms in their entirety!) in a way that facilitates the worship of the Church. There are many ancient prayers found within the pages of the Book of Common Prayer for any circumstance that you may find yourself in. If you want to know what we believe, come and worship with us and listen to our prayers!

To Be a Christian
An Anglican Catechism

Over time, various groups have developed ways of helping people new to the Christian faith prepare for baptism or develop a deeper understanding of the faith. We called these tools Catechisms (Cat-a-kisms) which is an old Greek word meaning "to teach" or "instruct" with an emphasis on being done verbally. Our tradition has had different catechisms along the way, at the Anglican Church in North America has one that you can view online to help see how we unerstand the Christian faith. It is a great way to learn about the faith, and it is broken up into easy to follow Question and Answer format which became common for catechsims around the world.