Basic Beliefs:

• The ICCEC stands squarely on the historic, undisputed teachings of orthodox Christianity as taught by Jesus, spread by the Apostles, defended by the Patriarchs of the Early Church, expressed in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, and exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church during the first millennium of its existence. We believe that these things taken together, with Jesus first, contain the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order delivered to the Church.
• Theologically we stand in union with all churches who profess the necessary tenets of Faith as outlined in our San Clemente Declaration of 1999*. Additionally, we maintain the validity of God's grace imparted through the seven traditional sacraments of the Church (i.e., Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Confession & Reconciliation, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Healing/Unction).
• Since God has called the ICCEC to stand as a bridge between the protestant and catholic formulations of faith, our basic beliefs stand square on the essentials of orthodoxy (i.e., "that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all") as embodied in the great houses of Christian faith: Eastern Orthodoxy, Western Catholicism, and the Reformed traditions. For this reason we cannot walk in fellowship with any ecclesiastical body which would deny these essentials of faith; with those who would "move an ancient boundary stone" (Proverbs 22:28).
• Among those beliefs we hold inviolable the following:
  • The doctrine of saving grace through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ;
  • A high view of Holy Scripture in affirming the critical importance of preaching, public reading of the Word, and personal Bible study;
  • A high view of the Sacraments in imparting the grace of God, particularly through baptism and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist;
  • A high view of the Church in affirming Cyprian's claim that, "he who has not the Church for his mother, has not God for his Father;"
  • The real and present work of the Holy Spirit through gifts and signs imparted to believers for service and witness as experienced in the Early Church and rediscovered this past century by the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements.
• In this sense the ICCEC is wholly orthodox, wholly evangelical, wholly sacramental, and wholly charismatic.

Catholic: "that organized form of Christianity which was founded by Christ and His apostles, and has maintained a continuous, unbroken existence from the times of the apostles to the present, without any essential alteration in its faith, its sacraments, or its ministry."
Ways and Teachings of the Church, Leffard Haughwout.