As United Methodists, we celebrate our catholic roots and protestant heritage. We are "Catholic" in the sense of embracing the apostolic roots of our faith and practice passed down from Jesus Christ through the apostles and prophets.  We are  also "protestant" in the sense of  embracing the blessed Reformations of the Church by our forebearers Luther, Calvin, and Bishop Thomas Cranmer, John Wesley and George Whitfield  We are  a vital part of a world wide comunity of Methodists  who recognise  the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in the Church and our world today.. As United Methodists we profess the historic Christian faith in God, incarnate in Jesus God was in Christ for our salvation and  God is ever at work in human history in the Holy Spirit. Under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we participate in the first fruits of God's coming reign and pray in hope for its full realization on earth as in heaven.  The offficial motto and purpose of The United Methodist Church is "Making Disciples for Jesus Christ".Together with other Christian Churches throughout the ages and the world, we find visible and verbal expression of our common Christian Faith in the creeds of the Church. The most familiar of these affirmations of the Faith may be   found in the Apostles' Creed:

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. I believe  in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord who was concieved by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the Third day He rose again; He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father and will come again to judege the living and the dead I believe in the Holy Spirit,  the holy *catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen."

*catholic means universal