Anglicans demonstrate a proclivity to sensibility, the taking into account of the whole of the experience—ambiguity and all.  Sensibility is the recognition that the inexpressible nature of God can never be reduced to simplistic terms.  This recognition coupled with the fact that God is the creator of everything that is, states that the knowledge of God requires that we must look and study His handiwork.

Anglicans believe that God makes Himself known and is known in the ordinary routine of life.

The consciousness of Anglicanism is predominantly feminine.  The sense of a community of thought as opposed to a well-defined definitive position, is what is meant by a feminine consciousness.

Anglicans do not believe that God’s revelation of Himself ended with the closing of the Canon in the fourth century.  We believe that God continues to reveal Himself and His will in a manner that enlarges upon what is found in the Bible.

The Act of Uniformity of 1559 lives on in our expectation that every practicing Anglican will be in church Sundays and Holy Days to worship God according to the use of the Book of Common Prayer.

Unity in essentials; freedom in non-essentials is a traditional Anglican pattern.  The common life of The Church should be orderly but not regimented.

Anglicans belief that God came into the world and lived a human life is summed up in the word “Incarnation” (coming into flesh).  God is best known and understood in human life, because God remains beyond human reasoning.  Human beings can understand only in human terms; in Jesus, God has give us in human terms the fullest possible statement of the nature of God and of God’s care for us.

Anglican theology prefers to avoid either/or choices, thinking that there is often more wisdom in both/and.

Anglicans believe that Christ’s transcendent presence in the Holy Spirit has continually formed, reformed, and informed who we are as a major branch of the Christian Church.

Anglicans understand Christianity as a way of life; a matter of practice, rather than of theory, in which religion, morality, theology, and ethics are one.  We are bound together by our liturgy rather than doctrinal emphasis or social organization; a church whose members find their center in common worship, and go out to serve according to the gifts and opportunities they are given in daily life.

Anglicans believe in a disciplined use of all our resources, which begins with systematic giving of our selves, time, talent, and treasure to the work of The Church.  The Episcopal Church has declared that stewardship is the most important work of Christians and established the tithe as the normal standard Christian giving.

Anglicans believe we are a people who at our Baptism are incorporated into a living changing tradition, established by a community of faith that continually strives to know and do the will of God through the use of its three authoritative sources: Scripture, Reason, and Tradition.

Our Anglican emphasis on God’s entry into the human life and history has resulted in an earthy spirituality.  We believe the extraordinary is to be found in the ordinary.  We affirm life in this world and believe the body, pleasure, and material reality are fundamentally good.  Similarly, the natural world is God’s gift (grace) to us.

In spirituality there are two understandings of our human quest for the experience of union with God, namely, pietism and mysticism.  Pietism emphasizes immediate experiences of God (i.e. a dramatic emotional conversion experience).  Mysticism emphasizes a long, slow journey into union with God through spiritual discipline and continuous renewal.  Anglican spirituality has an inclination toward mysticism.

Anglicans affirm a principle of comprehensiveness or the via media (the middle way).  Anglicans encourage a searching, questioning, reasonable mind always open to new insights and change.

Anglicans believe that they are called to live a Godly (manifesting the divine image of ourselves), righteous (living in a right relationship to God and neighbor), and sober life.  This means that Anglicans normally believe in avoiding extremes, and strive to model a temperate, balanced, reasonable approach to life.

English history has made us a political church.  That is, we value the civic virtues and affirm free, peaceful, public debate as a basis for political unity.  We believe The Church has an obligation to attempt to influence social, political, and economic life.

The spirituality of The Episcopal Church has been shaped by no single confession of faith or theological system but by a rich variety of sources, each adding unique values and insights on which all may draw.  As a result of this blend of influences, The Episcopal Church has centered its attention more often on the Creation and Incarnation than on sin and redemption.  It has preferred to praise God rather than dwell on human failures.  Human beings have need of a Savior and the Good News of the Gospel is that God has provided such a Savior.

At the Chicago-Lambeth Conference in 1886, four basic principles were stated on which the Anglican community would approach the matter of union with another communion:  1) the authority of the Old and New Testaments, 2) the rule of faith found in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, 3) the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, 4) the historic Episcopate.