About Us
Immanuel is a vibrant Anglican church worshipping in Decatur, Georgia. Our aim is to be people who increasingly resemble Jesus in the way we worship, live, and love our neighbors.
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OUR Vision
The vision of Immanuel grows from our desire to live into the meaning of our name: God Is With Us!
We believe that the Christian life is meant to be embodied in community with one another and with our neighbors. The church is called to be the presence of Jesus in their context and we learn to be this divine presence by walking in the way of God’s Son. Therefore we summarize this as a vision to be:
Disciples of Jesus, seeking his kingdom and the flourishing of our neighbors.
OUR Values
We pursue our vision, guided by these values:
Ancient faith
We are a church that grounds its faith in scripture. We adhere to the creeds for the foundations of our faith, to the early church for inspiration, and to the church fathers and mothers for wisdom and understanding. We gather to worship on Sundays and ground our liturgy and theology in the Bible.
Context
While we are a people of ancient faith, we believe we are called to engage when and where we are in faithful ways. We believe we are gifted by the Spirit to engage in particular ways in our particular contexts. Our liturgy may look different from the Anglican church down the street as a way for us to be faithful to our context.
Discipleship
We are committed to intentionality when it comes to our growth as Christians into Christlikeness. Our identity as disciples of Jesus beckons us to follow in his footsteps, to learn from him, and order our lives in such a way that we are close to his heart and his ways. We believe in whole-life discipleship—the youngest and oldest of us can be intentional in our formation. We learn together through liturgy, teaching, and neighborhood groups and commit ourselves to the intentionality of formation.
Connection
We want to be a church where people feel seen and known. We desire for connection to be holistic—that people at Immanuel would feel connected to themselves, to others, and to God. We do this by encouraging emotional health, opportunities for meeting others, and through gatherings for prayer and learning. We want Immanuel to be a place where people find others to walk alongside as they follow Jesus.
Diversity & Equity
We believe all of God’s people are made in his image and are dearly loved by him. We acknowledge that, individually and systemically, the world and the church has not lived up to this belief. We are committed to creating a safe, diverse, and equitable space for people of all races and ethnicities and of all abilities and disabilities. We are an egalitarian church, which means we believe in the equal calling and empowering of women alongside men in ministry, in the workplace, and in the home.
Mission
We believe that this world belongs to God who is already at work redeeming it to himself. As disciples, we are called to co-labor with Jesus in this reconciling work that brings about his kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven." We believe that our relationship with Jesus ought to make us people of peace, justice, reconciliation, and empowerment. Our faith ought to be influential in the world around us. We want to be people who are called into our communities and workplaces to spread the gospel, to love others, and to help those around us flourish.
our context
Our History
Immanuel Anglican Church is part of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO), a nationwide diocese of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) that is united by a commitment to church planting and mission.
Immanuel began Trinity Eastside Parish, planted by Trinity Anglican Church on Atlanta’s westside. Trinity was founded in 2002 out of the Vineyard Church and was soon drawn toward more contemplative and liturgical practice. In 2010 it became Anglican, embracing three streams of historic Christian practice: Charismatic, Evangelical, and Liturgical.
In 2014, Trinity planted the Eastside Parish to carry its mission, values, and culture to the other side of the city. For more than six years, Trinity supported the parish with resources, staff, and pastoral oversight. On May 23, 2021, the Eastside Parish became a self-governing church under a new name: Immanuel Anglican Church.
We remain closely connected to Trinity through an emerging network of churches. Our 2021 launch wasn’t the start of something brand new — it was the start of the next chapter in more than two decades of faithful presence in Atlanta.
Our Beliefs
We believe in the authority of the Christian Scriptures for our life and practice. We hold to the essential orthodox Christian beliefs as best expressed in the Apostles, Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. Every year we offer a 6-part Theological Foundations Class that explores the ancient Christian faith and how it shapes our practices at Immanuel.
Additionally, in an effort to further center ourself in our Anglican tradition, we have created a podcast called The Anglican Way: a five-part series about the history, shape, worship, structure, and hopes of the Anglican Church.
Each episode we take one piece of the tradition and ask where it came from, what it means, and why it matters for how you actually live.