“We believe…”
Our core values
Edgewater Presbyterian Church is a multicultural, multiracial congregation that honors the dignity of all people as created in the image of God. As disciples of Christ, we are empowered by the Spirit to embody God’s inclusive love through vibrant worship, caring community, and acts of compassion and justice in our neighborhood and world.
As a congregation, we live these core values:
Worship. The foundation of our life as Edgewater Presbyterian Church is prayer, worship, music, celebration, and the message of Scripture, as they reflect the diversity of who we are and the fullness of who God is, as revealed in Jesus Christ.
Diversity. Because we believe God created all people in God’s image and that God’s love abounds for all people, we want our church to be a diverse mosaic of all races, religions, cultures, sexual orientation and gender identities, mental and physical abilities, and educational and economic backgrounds, and we believe God desires for us to live in peace.
Dedication. We believe a vital church must have dedicated leadership and a congregation that participates fully in the life, ministry and mission of the church.
Shining Light. We believe that we are called to be a shining light, reflecting God’s love and justice, and deepening our own faith by serving our community, our city and the world, through our personal involvement, the resources of our church building, and our other material resources.
Discipleship. We value life-long Christian discipleship for all members—young and old alike—and we desire to provide a variety of opportunities to nurture everyone’s faith.
The Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed outlines our most basic beliefs. It was written in 325 and revised in 381. You will hear the same creed out loud in Catholic, Episcopalian, and Lutheran churches, too.
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Our confessions
Presbyterians belong to a mainline Christian church.
That means it is one of the oldest Protestant denominations, like the Episcopalian and Lutheran bodies, who branched out from the Church of Rome at about the same time history.
We believe that we, including Catholics, belong to one Church, despite our differences.
Our creeds or statements of belief are found in our Book of Confessions, which you can download.
This book contains the Nicene Creed, Apostle’s Creed, Scots Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Second Helvetic Confession, Westminster Confession of Faith, among others.
Our roots
Edgewater Presbyterian Church was founded over 120 years ago by Scottish, Welsh, and English immigrants to Chicago.
It has grown and changed with the neighborhood from the jazz age excitement in the midst of the glamour and glitz of the Edgewater Beach Hotel and the Hotel Sovereign, followed by the lows of the Great Depression and world war, and the upswing of the post-war era.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the church existed within a community experiencing multiple waves of ethnic movement in and out of the neighborhood. By the 1980s, it began serving the needs of people facing various kinds of economic and social inequalities.
From these historical experiences, Edgewater Presbyterian Church became one of the most diverse congregations in the American presbyterian tradition with members from all over the U.S. and across the Americas, Africa and Asia.
It still is today.
And we are proud of that distinction.
Our presbyterian heritage
As of 2020, there are about 1.2 million members of the Presbyterian Church (USA)—our denomination.
Presbyterians are part of the Reformed branch of Christianity that is also called Calvinism. During the Reformation inspired by Martin Luther, Frenchman John Calvin sowed the seeds of his own Reformation in Switzerland, who in turn influenced a man named John Knox in Scotland.
In Presbyterianism, instead of bishops, the Church is led by democratically chosen presbyters or elders.
Ordained ministers are called teaching elders and are allowed to become pastors. Lay elders have equal authority with teaching elders within a congregation.
From those elders, the congregation sends a representative to a presbytery. Together, the elders of the presbytery have the collective powers similar to a bishop.
The Church of Scotland is considered the motherchurch—or immediate origin—of America’s presbyterian groups. Scots brought their faith tradition to the American colonies and established their own presbyteries.
The presbyterian form of church government influenced the form of civil government adopted by the U.S. with checks and balances between equal branches of authority.