What we believe
We believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and only Saviour of the world. We believe that in a love that we can experience but can never fully comprehend God our Creator sent His unique Son Jesus into our world, and that in love the Son became one of us, sharing our life fully. Loving the Father Jesus trusted Him and was obedient to His will even when it took Him to the cross. There He died purposefully, laying down His life for His people to bring them life. God raised Him from the dead and now He reigns, the one to whom all authority in heaven and earth is given, the one who can forgive sins and give new life, the new life of His Spirit, to all throughout the world who call upon Him for mercy. We believe He will return, judge the world, and raise His people up to eternal life in the new heaven and earth God has promised His people, and we long for that day.
In a world where people have lost touch with God and rejected God, where they justly deserve God's anger at their destructive and selfish behaviour, we believe Jesus is the one who can and does bring us back and reconciles us to God the Almighty Creator and Judge so that we can know peace with Him and enter into the community of His people, a people characterised by love for one another. We come to know Jesus, and the God whom Jesus reveals, through the witness of the apostles Jesus chose. Their witness is preserved for us in the New Testament which, together with the Old Testament, is the God breathed Scripture of the living God, a wholly trustworthy and sufficient revelation of God, the test of all other claims to knowledge of God and His will.
Our congregation builds its life on those beliefs, gathering around God's word on Sunday to hear it read and taught, and meeting in small groups to share and teach the Scripture to one another. We encourage one another to believe its promises, obey its commands, and conform our thinking to what it teaches. We seek, by the help of God's Holy Spirit, to live a life of faith in Christ, loving one another and seeking to share the Good News that Jesus is God's Saviour with all.
As a congregation associated with the Presbyterian Church of Victoria we accept the Westminster Confession of Faith read in the light of the Declaratory Statement as a reasonable summary of the Scripture's teaching, and we govern our life together through meetings of Elders and Ministers, both at a congregational and wider level. This is only a brief summary and we welcome all enquiries about our beliefs.
We are part of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria which is part of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. As part of this denomination we accept the Westminster Confession of Faith as a reasonable summary of the Bible's teaching. "Presbyterian" refers to the way we govern church, that is, elected ministers and elders from a number of local churches form a presbytery that leads, cares for and oversees these local churches.