Apostolic Authority: The Creeds & The Canonical Scriptures
We stand within the historic, orthodox faith of the Church. We receive the Canonical Scriptures as the primary and trustworthy testimony to God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ, through which the Church is continually formed, instructed, and renewed. The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381 AD) represents the agreed authoritative confessions of the Church across time, culture, and denomination. While we recognise that the term "Apostolic" carries different historical emphases across our traditions, whether focused on the succession of office, the preservation of tradition, or primary adherence to the Apostles’ teaching in Scripture, we together affirm this shared heritage as our foundational "rule of faith."
In a gesture of profound respect and a desire for broad spiritual connection, we thoughtfully adopt the biblical canon recognised across the widest range of Christian traditions—the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We deeply honour that many hold other biblical books dear. Our choice is a generous one, rooted in seeking the most common ground for shared scripture. This foundation fosters rich scriptural unity, providing an inclusive basis for powerful moments of teaching, prayer, and reflection, allowing all to connect and grow together.
For our internal use, the New Revised Standard Version Anglicised (NRSVA) is chosen for its widespread interdenominational acceptance and scholarly rigour.
Christ-Centred & Embodied Christology
Christ remains at the centre of everything we do at Australian Christian Arts.
We are centred on Christ in a way that is embodied, coherent, and whole. We confess Jesus Christ as God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, eternally begotten of the Father and of one being with Him, who for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos (God-bearer). In Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God truly assumed human flesh, becoming fully human while remaining fully divine. As the Church has always confessed, He is one undivided Person, fully divine and fully human, the divine and human united without mixture, confusion, change, division, or separation — a mystery the Eastern (Chalcedonian) and Oriental Orthodox (Miaphysite) traditions confess in their own language while holding the same faith.
We confess that Jesus Christ is the eternal Word who existed before all things and who alone took on flesh for the salvation of the world. Christ alone, as the eternal Son, pre-existed in His divine nature and freely assumed a complete human nature in time. In the Incarnation, God did not bypass the body but redeemed it. In Christ, the body is neither incidental nor disposable; it is the place where obedience, worship, suffering, beauty, discipline, and love are worked out.
Creative Arts as Incarnational Witness
Because of the aforementioned Christological centre, we believe the creative arts participate in the logic of the Incarnation. Just as the eternal Word took on flesh, so the arts give embodied form to truth, beauty, and meaning. Through music, movement, word, and image, the arts serve as icons of the unseen, rendering tangible what is believed and making it perceptible. Our creativity is not an escape from the world, but a faithful engagement with it, shaping forms that allow faith to be encountered through sound, sight, space, and gesture. When rightly ordered, the arts become a means of presence rather than spectacle, hospitality rather than performance, and witness rather than self-expression.
Oneness in Christ (Koinonia)
We affirm the unity of the Church in the one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all who are baptised into Him are made one body. Our oneness is not grounded in sameness of culture, style, or temperament, but in our shared participation, or Koinonia (pronounced: koy-noh-NEE-ah), in Christ, who gathers His people into one communion by the Holy Spirit. Within Australian Christian Arts, Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox believers gather as one body, not by erasing difference, but by holding difference within the deeper unity we receive in Christ.
As we confess in the Creeds, we acknowledge "one baptism for the forgiveness of sins." However, we recognise that our various traditions hold different views on the nature and timing of baptism. This area of theology, known as soteriology (pronounced: so-teer-ee-OL-o-gee), deals with how salvation is understood and lived out. Australian Christian Arts does not subscribe to one specific denominational view on how baptism works in relation to salvation. Instead, we purposefully leave the teaching and administration of baptism to the local Church and its respective traditions.
Respect for Historic Christian Ethics
We affirm and believe the moral vision of historic Christianity as something received, not invented. Rooted in our confession of Jesus Christ as true God and true man, this vision seeks the formation of the whole person, body, soul, and spirit, into the likeness of Christ. This historic Christian ethic shapes our understanding of love, faithfulness, integrity, and responsibility as patterns of life ordered toward holiness and human flourishing. We recognise that faithful Christians engage this journey from different starting places; therefore, moral formation is understood as a lifelong process of grace, growth, and repentance, held with humility and pastoral care.
Developing Devotion
We believe that any artistic excellence flows from a life of deepening devotion to the Triune God. Devotion is the ordered response of our whole life to the One who has drawn us into communion. This devotion takes form through prayer, Scripture, worship, and faithfulness in the ordinary rhythms of life. For many, this also includes a regular participation in the sacraments (pronounced: SAK-ra-ments), which are the sacred rites of the Church that serve as physical means of God’s grace.
We expect our devotion to mature through discipline and community, as the life of Christ is increasingly made visible in us. We believe that skill is sustained by prayer, and our artistry is nourished by a living, obedient, and ever-deepening relationship with God.
Safe Spirit-Led Ministry
We seek to be led by the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life, through Scripture, prayer, and the historic faith of the Church. The Spirit continues to guide, convict, and give wisdom, tested and discerned within the community of faith. Within our rehearsals and events, we listen attentively to the Holy Spirit as He draws hearts toward Jesus Christ. We practice a measured spirituality that resists impulse and performance, trusting that the Spirit works most faithfully through attentiveness, order, and love to form Christ in us for the glory of God.