Statement of Faith for the
twenty first century

We have looked at the history of the churches and
villages of the Meon Valley from a Christian
perspective. How should we summarise our faith in
Twenty First Century terms? Broadly speaking this is a
summary of what most Christians believe today:

We believe that God created all things, some believing literally in
the Genesis accounts and others taking them as a figurative way of
declaring that there is a creator and a creation process and that God delights in His creation and has plans for it. We believe that God is somehow ‘transcendent’, that is, bigger than and beyond His creation; but He is also ‘immanent’, that is with us and within us through His Holy Spirit.

We believe in God as a person - not as energy, a force or love - but as a person who somehow lives in unity, or as one person, with His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. That is the mystery of the Trinity; it is a difficult concept but there is no other way of explaining God’s work in creation and His continuing work in us today. Jesus and the Spirit are not afterthoughts or subordinate persons; they were with God and in God and they were God from the very beginning.

We believe that the world has seen God, not only figuratively in the early Genesis stories but as Jesus Christ in relatively recent history, of which there are excellent verifiable accounts both within Scripture and in contemporary literature. The birth, life and death of Jesus fulfilled dozens of prophecies made over five hundred years before and these may be found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

We believe that Jesus came to reconcile us with God. Our behaviour and our sins made us unworthy to be in God’s presence but the painful gesture of crucifixion on the cross at Calvary was Jesus’ way of dispensing with all the old methods of trying to make reparation for wrongdoing and of accomplishing a once-and-for-all ‘atonement for sin’. We believe that Jesus’ amazing sacrifice was done out of love for us and to enable us to be deemed pure and holy by God - to be deemed fit to be called members of His family. We believe that we are now sons and daughters of God. We become members of His family as a consequence of Jesus’ sacrifice and through the rite of baptism.

We believe that as members of God’s family we are part of ‘the communion of saints’ linking all Christians through time and across the world and into the future.

We believe that as Jesus returned to His Father in heaven after His time on earth, He left us His Holy Spirit to guide, comfort and strengthen us. Being a Christian is not just a matter of assenting belief in God and Christ but is essentially a matter of experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, transforming us and preparing us for life’s destination - heaven.

And we believe that Jesus will return; not as an infant in a humble stable but as a King to bring His people together, to draw this age to a close and to reunite heaven and earth. We believe that there will be a Judgement Day at this time in which we shall all be judged according to our deeds and according to our faith. Those of us who have accepted Jesus as our Saviour need have no fear for Christ has already paid the price for our sins and has won for us a place in His presence.

We believe that there will be a resurrection in which our souls will inhabit new bodies which will not suffer as we do from getting old and sick. God will no longer be remote from us; we will be His people and He will be with us and we with Him.

We believe in the truth of the Bible; it is all we need to know. It tells us of creation; of God slowly revealing Himself, His plans and His ways to the Hebrews through the narratives of the Old Testament; of His preparation for the Incarnation or the coming of Jesus; of Jesus’ life, teaching and ministry and of His death and resurrection; and the Bible foretells the future, reassuring us that all creation and our own lives have a purpose which will be fulfilled in due course. And we believe that the Bible is more than a narrative of past events or the promise of things to come. It is the living Word of God. God continues to speak to us and to transform our broken lives through His holy Word today.

And we believe, as Wilfrid believed, that this so-called Gospel is so wonderful that it requires a response from us. We need to respond to God’s grace, mercy and love in worship and prayers of thanksgiving and praise; and we need to tell others. We must not keep these wonderful truths to ourselves. That is why Wilfrid came to live among the Meonwara; that is what our ancestors have been trying to do in these churches these 1300 years; that is why this pilgrimage has been prepared.