Frequently Asked Questions

Our office is open Monday through Friday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. We would encourage you to schedule an appointment, as we are "in and out" ministering in the communities we serve.

We have a variety of music styles, while mostly traditional hymns are sung, we also implement more modern songs on occasion.

An Anglican worship service may be unfamiliar to you, but everything is either Scripture, prayer, or singing. The service begins with what is called the Liturgy of the Word, where we hear from two readings of Scripture about who God is, what He has done, and how we ought to live in relationship with Him. We then have the Sacrament or Holy Communion, where we take part in Christ's work on the cross, where we are fed and strengthened by Him to go back into the world. This format goes all the way back to the Early Church 

 "So yet here you have an order for prayer much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old fathers" -From the Preface of the First Book of Common Prayer, 1549 

We continue in the historic Anglican expression of the Christian Faith as the same has been transmitted to us through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, the Creeds of the Church, and the Book of Common Prayer. We are determined to continue in the Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship, and Evangelical Witness of the historic Anglican Church, with its traditional liturgy and music.

Our ways are ancient because the Faith is unchanging. We stand on the Rock of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of the turbulent sea of an ever-changing world. We offer you this firm foundation in order that you may know Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

While we have an ancient faith and traditional liturgy, we are also modern.

This is a great question. We, as traditional Anglicans are steeped in tradition, by intention not by convention.
We face the East, ad oriented (Ecclesiastical Latin meaning “to the East”). We do the Holy Mass or Holy Communion "against the wall".
Our belief has been that when we as Priest face the people, we are performing. It becomes a show instead of worshiping the Divine.
Facing the people, a Priest becomes the focal point and what he is doing, or not doing as opposed to worshipping God. 

Our focus at Holy Mass is not theatrical performances or concerts, rather, worshipping God who is right to be magnified and glorified for all he has done for us! 

In America, the term “Catholic” is usually associated with the Roman Catholic Church, however, the term comes from a Biblical Greek term for “universal”. To be Catholic is to be a member of the Universal Church founded by Jesus and his first apostles. The Catholic faith is rooted in Scripture, Tradition, the Creeds, the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments), and the historic ministry of Deacons, Priests and Bishop (within Apostolic Succession).​

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Globally there are millions of non-Roman Catholics found in the many other Catholic churches including the Orthodox, Old Catholic, and Anglican churches. 

Anglicans are considered Reformed Catholics.

Anglicanism is not a denomination. Instead, it is a Christian communion that doesn't subscribe to denominational theology. We are pre-denominational.
Anglicanism is one of the major branches of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation and a form of Christianity that includes features of both Protestantism and Catholicism. 

Anglicanism is a “reformed catholic” tradition, because it seeks to preserve the best insights of the Protestant Reformation while not throwing out the vast riches of the catholic (“universal”) Church’s tradition such as having Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, the liturgy, sacraments and the Church calendar.  

The theology of the founding documents of the Anglican church—the Book of Homilies, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion—expresses a theology in keeping with the Reformed theology. 

We are Catholic, Protestant and Reformed. We are conservative, liberal, right wing and left wing. But most of all we are CHRISTIANS who love the Lord, his church and reaching out to others and sharing that love. 

“Anglican” means simply that we trace our roots back to the Protestant Reformation when the Church of England rejected the authority of the pope and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Later as the Church of England began to expand beyond the borders of Great Britain, so it was no longer appropriate to call the new churches “the Church of England,” so they began to be called “Anglican”.

In an important sense, the Anglican Christian tradition began when Christianity first reached the British Isles in the 1st–3rd centuries. Three British bishops were present at the Council of Arles in 314. The first Archbishop of Canterbury, Augustine, arrived in Kent in 597. However, in an equally important sense, Anglicanism began when the Church of England emerged as a distinct entity (from the Roman Catholic Church) in 1534 when King Henry VIII officially denied that the Pope had authority over the Church in England. While it is true that Henry VIII’s desire for the nullification of his marriage had something to do with this decision, there were also powerful nationalistic and reformational currents in play. Another important Anglican founding figure is Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1556 and architect of the first two Books of Common Prayer in 1549 and 1552. 

 “We [Anglicans] have Bishops, Priests and Deacons, but the Priests are Presbyteri not Sacerdotes ... in the New Testament and the Prayer Book [Book of Common Prayer], it is essentially pastoral, never mediatorial, but always concerned with the work of preaching, teaching, and guiding the flock. The minister is a prophet from God to the people, and not a sacrificing or mediating priest” (p. 321)

“The Roman Catholic Church gives her ‘priests’ power to ‘offer sacrifices.’ But this is entirely absent from our [Anglican] Ordination Service ... there is nothing sacerdotal provided in the ministry of our Church, it seems clear that the word ‘priest’ can only be equivalent to ‘presbyter,’ and, as such, expresses the evangelistic and pastoral ministry associated with the Presbyterate in the New Testament.” (p. 319 -20)

The word “presbyter” derives from Greek πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros), meaning “old man” or “elder. ” In Old English, this was pronounced “pr ēost ” and later became “priest”. This is not the same word as the Latin term sacerdos /sacerdotes, literally “one who presents sacred offerings” (sacrifices). 

From The Principles of Theology: An Introduction to the Thirty -Nine Articles by the Rev. Dr. W.H. Griffith Thomas, Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford   

Jesus was teaching us that all spiritual fathers are serving under, and should follow after The Father, our heavenly Father. Human spiritual and family fatherhood should always be under God’s fatherhood. Every teacher should see teaching as passing on the teachings of Christ, the Teacher, rather than developing personal doctrines. So, a priest can be a father to his people, under the fatherhood of God.

That being said, no one should have to call their pastor “Father.” But for some, it helps to remind us that we can follow him as he follows Christ.

Paul modeled this in his ministry. He was a humble servant, who nevertheless served as a father with spiritual authority rather than power plays or manipulation.

 The title of "Father" is an honorific title. Anglican usage of the title dates from the ritual revival of the Anglo-Catholic movement of the nineteenth century. It was borrowed from Roman Catholic practice, and it spread to widespread acceptance among Anglo-Catholics. By the late twentieth century, the title was used widely by male priests including many who were not Anglo-Catholics. Its counterpart, “Mother,” is sometimes used by female priests.  

Everyone thinks of confession as a Roman Catholic practice, but it has been a practice for Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, and Lutherans for centuries as well. 

While it is not mandatory, it is encouraged. There is an old Anglican saying regarding who ought to go to confession: All Can, Some Should, None Must.

There are spiritual effects of the Sacrament of Penance are:

- reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace;

- reconciliation with the Church;

- remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins;

- remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting from sin;

- peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation;

- an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.

Individual and integral confession of grave sins followed by absolution remains the only ordinary means of reconciliation with God and with the Church.

For more information, see "Questions about Penance" below. See also the SACRAMENTS page for more information. 

God looks at the heart, so it really doesn't matter what you wear. We believe in the expression, "Come as you are". All we ask is that the way you dress is decent and no profanity.  Most of us are totally casual, although you might also see some a little more dressed up. 

People who attend Church of the Risen Christ come from a wide variety of faith backgrounds including Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Assembly of God, to name a few. We are a body of believers in Jesus Christ whose mission is to bring forth a message of hope and the unconditional love of God for ALL people.

Not necessarily. If you are from a Christian faith and was baptized in the Trinity, namely in the name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, you would not be required to be baptized again.

Most Sunday's our worship services last between one hour and an hour and a half.

Absolutely! We believe that God created all people in Gods own image (Gen 1:26-27). God created our inmost being, uniquely knit us together in our mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13-16).  Every person has been created in God’s image. Our inmost being is about who we are on the inside. God sees each person from the inside, the heart. Belief in Jesus as Savior is all that is required (John 3:16).

Being a sacramental church refers to the branches of Christianity that embrace the historic worship and traditions that united the Church since the apostolic age. 

Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.

The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in which the person is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God’s family the Church, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.

It is required that we renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in the Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God.

Promises are made for them by their parents and sponsors, who guarantee that the infants will be brought up within the Church, to know Christ and be able to follow him.

 Confirmation is the rite in which we express a mature commitment to Christ and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop.

It is required of those to be confirmed that they have been baptized, are sufficiently instructed in the Christian Faith, are penitent for their sins, and are ready to affirm their confession of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

The Holy Eucharist, often called the Holy Mass is the sacrament commanded by Christ for the continual remembrance of his life, death, and resurrection, until his coming again.

Because the Eucharist, the Church’s sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, is the way by which the sacrifice of Christ is made present, and in which he unites us to his one offering of himself.

The Holy Eucharist is called the Lord’s Supper, and Holy Communion; it is also known as the Divine Liturgy, the Mass, and the Great Offering.

The outward and visible sign in the Eucharist is bread and wine, given and received according to Christ’s command.

The inward and spiritual grace in the Holy Communion is the Body and Blood of Christ given to his people and received by faith.

The benefits we receive are the forgiveness of our sins, the strengthening of our union with Christ and one another, and the foretaste of the heavenly banquet which is our nourishment in eternal life.

It is required that we should examine our lives, repent of our sins, and be in love and charity with all people.

Holy Matrimony is Christian marriage, in which those coming to the church to seek this sacrament enter into a life-long union, make their vows before God and the Church, and receive the grace and blessing of God to help them fulfill their vows. 

 Holy Orders is Ordination. Ordination is the rite in which God gives authority and

the grace of the Holy Spirit to those being made bishops, priests, and deacons, through prayer and the laying on of hands by bishops in apostolic succession from Jesus Christ.

What is Reconciliation of a Penitent? 

Reconciliation of a Penitent, or Penance, is the rite in which those who repent of their sins may confess them to God in the presence of a priest, or bishop and receive the assurance of pardon and the grace of absolution. 

What is Unction of the Sick?

Unction is the rite of anointing the sick with oil, or the laying on of hands, by which God’s grace is given for the healing of spirit, mind, and body.