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We are Christians.

Like all Christians everywhere, we believe in one God who exists in three persons – Father, Son and Spirit; the Triune God of the Bible.
We believe in Jesus
We believe in God the Son, Jesus Christ, who is co-equal and co-eternal with God, who became a human 2000 years ago in order to redeem the human race, and who now exists as a fully divine and fully human being.
We believe in God the Father
We believe in God the Father, who loved the world by sending his Son into the world to save it. Those who believe in Christ are adopted into his family and become children of God and call Christ’s Father their own.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
We believe in God the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son to all those who believe in him, to dwell in them and give them life, transforming them to be the new people of God.

We are Reformed.

In the 16th Century, a large number of Catholic priests and laity led a breakaway movement from the Roman Catholic Church in response to certain grave errors and practices. The Reformers of this “Reformation” believed five basic tenets in distinction from the Catholic church, which we still hold to today.
  • We believe that we are saved:
  • by grace alone
  • through faith alone
  • in Christ alone
  • according to Scripture alone
  • for the glory of God alone
We are evangelical

We are Evangelical.

Evangelical comes from the Greek word euangelion, which means “gospel” or “good news”. When we say we’re evangelical, what we mean is that we believe in the gospel – the good news that Christ has come to save us from our sins.
Creation
God created the world, and he put humans (who he made in his own image) in charge over it, to care for it and look after it. Everything was originally good.
Sin
But the first humans sinned – they disobeyed God and rebelled against him. Humanity is now spiritually dead: ostracised from God and doomed to destruction.
Salvation
But God loves the world, so he sent his Son the Lord Jesus into the world to die on a cross to pay the penalty of our sin so that we can be saved.
New life
Any human can now be made alive: freely forgiven and reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus and empowered to live a new life for him.

We are Presbyterian.

The term Presbyterian comes from the Greek word presbuteros which means elder. Rather than being governed by single individuals (priests, bishops, archbishops) like in an episcopalian system, or being governed by the congregation like in a congregational system, a Presbyterian church is governed and led by ministers and elders.
We are governed by presbyters
A presbyter is simply a minister or elder in a local church. Presbyters govern across four different levels of church government: at a session in a local church, in a presbytery, and at the State and General Assembly.
We are part of the Presbyterian Church
As a church, we are part of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland (pcq.org.au) which is part of the Presbyterian Church of Australia (pca.org.au).
We hold to the Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Confession of Faith is the confessional document on which the Presbyterian Church of Australia is based.

We are a church.

A people, not a building
A church is a group of people, saved by Christ, who gather together regularly in his name to worship him. While we have a lovely church building at Ithaca, our building is not our church; we are the church.
A family, not a show
A church is not a show that you attend to watch; it’s a family that you join to be a part of. We don’t come to church to consume. We are a church family made up of brothers and sisters in Christ, and we love and serve one another.
Ambassadors, not a brand
We are ambassadors for the Lord Jesus, and we want everyone to know about him, not about us. And so while we try to do things with excellence and make things look good, it’s for the purpose of making him look good, not us.
Not a business
While we have income and expenditure like other businesses, we are not in it for the money. We gather and worship and serve out of joy and ultimately for the purpose of glorifying God.