Our Beliefs
Sea Bright UMC is a member of the United Methodist Church; made up of millions world-wide. We are your neighbors in faith and practice associated under the umbrella of our national organization. With all of our differences; we are united by our relationship to God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It’s that simple.
Theology, doctrine, creeds, articles of religion, and confessions of faith can be wordy and overwhelming but, our relationship to God isn’t. The mission of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. You can learn more about who we are and what we believe by reading our foundational documents.
The symbol most people recognize for the United Methodist Church (UMC; our national denomination) is the Cross & Flame insignia. It was designed represent our relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
To learn more; https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-has-the-united-methodist-church-always-had-an-official-symbol
The Cross and Flame is a registered trademark, and the use is supervised by the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) of The United Methodist Church. Permission to use the Cross and Flame must be obtained from the GCFA, Attn: Legal Department, Post Office Box 340029, Nashville, TN 37203-0029; phone 615-369-2334; fax 615-369-2330.
Foundational Documents for our Beliefs
Just as creeds such as the Apostles’ Creed summarize the Beliefs of all Christians, the Articles of Religion of The Methodist Church and the Confessions of Faith of The Evangelical United Brethren Church form a foundation of doctrine for United Methodists. They, along with Wesley’s Sermons on Several Occasions and Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, are “standards” of doctrine for United Methodists, and guide our Beliefs.
The Articles of Religion
When the Methodist movement in America became a church in 1784, John Wesley provided the American Methodists with a liturgy and a doctrinal statement, which contained twenty-four “Articles of Religion” or basic statements of belief. These Articles of Religion were taken from the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England—the church out of which the Methodism movement began—and had been the standards for preaching within the Methodist movement. When these articles were voted on by the American conference, an additional article was added regarding the American context, bringing the total number of articles to 25.
These articles became the basic standards for Christian belief in the Methodist church in North America. First published in the church’s Book of Discipline in 1790, the Articles of Religion have continued to be part of the church’s official statement of belief.
The Confession of Faith
The Confession of Faith is the statement of Beliefs from The Evangelical United Brethren Church. Consisting of 16 articles, the current form of this statement of faith was presented and adopted by the 1962 General Conference.
When The United Methodist Church was formed in 1968 from the union of several branches of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, both The Articles of Religion and the Confession of Faith were adopted as basic statements of our Beliefs of Christian faith.
