Our beliefs

St Paul’s Cathedral is part of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia : Te Hahi Mihinare ki Aotearoa ki Niu Tireni, ki Nga Moutere o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa.

A Church which reflects God’s incredible diversity:

We believe in Church which does not discriminate, on any level, on grounds of culture, economic power, gender, mental health, physical ability, race or sexuality.

We believe in Church which welcomes and serves all people in the name of Jesus Christ; which is scripturally faithful; which seeks to proclaim the Gospel afresh for each generation; and which, in the power of the Holy Spirit, allows all people to grasp how great is the love of Jesus Christ. You can find out more about our commitment to being an Inclusive Church here.

Celebrating our God revealed in Science and Discovery:

We believe, along with countless Christians throughout every age, in a loving, creative God who is revealed in the person of Jesus, the Christ, and also in the natural universe, an amazing, unfolding creation which can be investigated and explored using the gifts of intelligence, wonder and curiosity with which God has imbued human beings made in God’s image.

This means that we share a faith which is entirely compatible with, and indeed enhanced by, scientific discovery. Many of the seminal ideas in modern scientific fields were proposed or proven by scientists with a strong faith, including the Big Bang Theory, proposed by Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, mathematician and astronomer Fr Georges Lemaître, and leading Christian scientists in every field today find no conflict with their faith.

Over 1600 years ago, the famous African theologian St Augustine of Hippo, an Imazighen (Berber) bishop from Hippo Regius in Numidia (in modern-day Algeria), observed that “it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing” for a Christian to interpret scripture in a way that denies scientific facts, “presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics,” as such science-denying not only makes a fool of the speaker, but drives people from faith, as they can see that the speaker is plainly wrong about something they can measure. As a principle, Augustine held that “When there is a conflict between a proven truth about nature and a particular reading of Scripture, an alternative reading of Scripture must be sought.”

In other words, the Bible is a complex library of many different genres, through which we may glimpse some of the nature and works of God, but the books are not scientific textbooks. If we interpret a poem about the wonders of creation and its relationship with God in a way that is scientifically proven to be wrong, then it is we who are mistaken, not the scientist or the poet, and we need to look again at what scripture might actually be saying rather than defend a ‘truth’ that was never meant literally even by the author… So yes, we believe in evolution, the same way we believe (especially living in Aotearoa) in plate tectonics and in oceanography!

If we believe in a faithful, loving, creator God upon whose Word we can depend, then we must also assume that we can depend on the natural and observable laws which exist within God’s creation (even when these become stranger and stranger the closer we are able to look!), and on the truths which are revealed to us about God’s creation when we investigate our own homeworld and the wider universe. Of course, much of what we know about both theology and science is our ‘best working theory’ with the information we have, but the scientific method and the scientific knowledge that we as a species have uncovered are part of, rather than in conflict with, a rich faith which is grounded in God’s Word and the working of the Holy Spirit.

This understanding is in keeping with scripture itself, which often celebrates the scientific and medical knowledge which God gives humanity, and with the understanding of mainstream churches throughout the world. Anglican Churches, including the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the USA, have made explicit statements about the importance of science in faith, and the Roman Catholic Catechism states that “there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth. Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God.”

Come and find out for yourself!

As this website grows, we hope to add more information and resources about our beliefs, our worship, and about how you can discover more about Christianity and Anglicanism.

In the meantime, why not come along and join us, and see for yourself? Everyone is welcome!