WHAT WE BELIEVE
We believe in a sovereign God. God is the creator of this world. He made it, he sustains it, he rules it and he loves it. Human beings are made in his image, given dignity and value by God. Yet human beings chose to reject their maker, deny his sovereignty and set themselves as lawmakers. This is what the bible calls “sin” and it deserves God’s judgement. As a result this world is experienced as a broken, painful and corrupted place.
We believe that God’s response to human sin was to come into this world. God did not leave us to the disaster we had made. He entered this world. God the Son – Jesus – came as one of us, perfectly revealing God’s character. Born as one of us, suffering as one of us, dying as one of us, he wore the consequences of our rebellion himself, dying in our place on a cross.
We believe that Jesus is king. God raised Jesus from death, overturning the brokenness of creation and the consequences of human sin. Jesus’ death and resurrection mean that he is now established as the rightful King of all so that, when he returns, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. It also means that, for those who are his, death does not have the last word. Just as Jesus rose so too will those who put their trust in him.
We believe that the bible is God’s word. It is how God has revealed himself to his creation and, in particular, it is how we know Jesus – God revealed in full. We study God’s word to listen to him and to know him. We obey his word because he is King.
We believe that God is at work in those who are his by his Spirit, transforming our attitudes and agendas from self-centred to Jesus-centred. It is by his Spirit that he moves rebellious human beings to respond to his love and embrace his forgiveness.
We believe that the church is the gathering of the people of Jesus. We meet around the bible, we talk to God because he hears and he cares. We sing because we have so much to sing about – God is good! And we long for others to know the freedom and forgiveness that we have found in Jesus alone.
OUR HISTORY
In his Presidential Address to the Synod (annual meeting) of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland (ACSQ), Archbishop Phillip Aspinall stated that “the biblical presuppositions no longer stand therefore the moral rules based on those presuppositions and rationale no longer must be regarded as prescriptive” (p 26, quoting Dr William Loader). This is a serious departure from Anglican doctrine expressed in our Constitution (especially paragraph 2), the 39 Articles (especially article XX) and the Ordinal. Other leaders within the ACSQ have denied not only the authority of the Scriptures, but the Virgin Birth, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the historic creeds, and the substitutionary atonement of the cross (see, for example, The Once and Future Scriptures by Dr Greg Jenks ed.)
It became clear that, in Brisbane, a choice needed to be made between being theologically Anglican and being structurally Anglican. Southside was born from this sad choice – to walk away from the structure in order to uphold the theology.
Southside is theologically Anglican, grounded in the Scriptures and upholding the 39 Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Southside is part of the Diocese of the Southern Cross – a structure not part of the Anglican Church of Australia but in fellowship with the majority of Anglicans around the world through the GAFCON movement. As such, Southside also affirms the Jerusalem Declaration.
