OUR MISSION

The Parish Church of St Margaret of Antioch, Rottingdean exists to honour God, and to enable questioning, open-minded people to discover for themselves the significance of Jesus Christ and to be drawn into relationship with God through prayer, worship, study/reflection and fellowship.

A DECLARATION OF BELIEF

We affirm that the Church’s mission, in obedience to Holy Scripture, is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in every generation.

We acknowledge that this is Good News for people regardless of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, belief, gender identity, language, sexual orientation, age, health or other status.. All are welcome! We believe that, in order to strengthen the Gospel’s proclamation of justice to the world, and for the greater glory of God, the Church’s own common life must be justly ordered. To that end, we call on our Church to live out the promise of the Gospel; to celebrate the diverse gifts of all the members of the body of Christ.

This parish is rooted within the liberal catholic tradition of the Church of England. Our central act of worship is the Holy Eucharist which our Lord himself gave us: ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’

OUR LIFE IN CHRIST COMMITS US TO:

believe in and proclaim both the mystery that is God, whom we partly know and partly do not know, and the human need to worship.

believe in and proclaim the person of Jesus Christ who distinctively reveals the nature of God and the meaning and purpose of life, and who calls us to follow him through the death of the cross to the place of Resurrection.

trust in the Holy Spirit who prompts liberty, beauty, truth, love and joy against the waywardness of human nature.

be committed to using the Bible in a way that takes account of all truth and relates it to the real experiences, both good and bad, that people have of life, and to encourage intelligent reflection and conversation on the meaning of the Scriptures.

be committed to a Church that conveys the Christian revelation in signs and symbols, particularly in the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion.

be committed to exploring the meaning of the Kingdom of God and to making connections between what we profess and the way in which we live and work, draw inspiration from those saints who, by their examples, demand that we look both at the resources we have created and possess, and the way by which they are shared.

be committed to taking all people seriously wherever they might be at their particular point of understanding, while at the same time sharing with them whatever insights may have been gained by our relationship with God.

acknowledge the destructive power of human sinfulness, and welcome gratefully the forgiveness that God offers to those who are prepared to turn to the Truth.

be committed to identifying and affirming what is good and identifying and opposing what is evil, and living as best we can in the mess in the middle.