St. James, Biddenham stands in the mainstream tradition of the Church of England, catholic but reformed. This means that our faith is based on the Catholic Creeds in which we profess our belief in God, revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and in the Church as the community of those united by our common Baptism into the Body of Christ. This faith finds its focus in the person of Jesus Christ, who is both truly human and fully divine. Because he loves us, God has emptied himself of his divine attributes to share completely in Jesus our human life with all its joys and sorrows, and through his Resurrection, he holds before us the hope of eternal life and that our lives can be transformed by the glory of God. Our faith is uniquely revealed to us through the Bible and especially in the Gospels but also through the use of our God-given human reason and through the teaching and tradition of the Church.
However, in the modern age, we are increasingly faced by ethical dilemmas that fall outside the experience of the ancient world, such as the place of women in society and scientific developments in medicine, like stem cell research. Here we must not resort to over literal interpretation of the Bible, but rather we must be bold and take our courage into our own hands and be prepared to make ethical judgments using the mind that God has given us, informed by the principles of the teaching of Jesus and by the traditions of the Church, and guided by the Holy Spirit.
We express our faith in worship through the Sacraments, and especially in Baptism and through the Holy Eucharist, in which we remember the love of Christ poured out for us in his self-offering on the Cross, we discover the presence of Christ among us and we share in his sacramental Body and Blood. We seek to learn about our faith through Emmaus, Lent Courses and other small groups. But we also express our faith through a life of loving service to our neighbours, at work, as individuals, in family life and through service to the community and also through various church groups such as Explorers, the Choir, the Bell-ringers and many others.
Our mission is to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to communicate our vision of God’s unconditional love for each one of us with everyone in our parish. We seek to build the Kingdom of God in Biddenham by teaching Christ’s values of love, truth and peace and by influencing individuals and organizations within our community by our own personal example and by our beliefs.