The Gray Monk

Tewkesbury Abbey Choristers

The Christian Creed

The Anglican Communion uses three forms of the Creed. These are:
· The “Apostles” Creed,
· The “Nicean” Creed, and
· The “Athanasian” Creed.

The first of these is the one we recite at Morning and Evening Prayer and is a straightforward statement of Christian beliefs. The second is similar, but it has a bit more detail and explanation of what we believe. We use it mainly at the Communion services. The third one we very rarely use - we are supposed to recite it at Morning and Evening Prayer on Trinity Sunday. It is an explanation of the nature of the Trinity or the manifestation of God in our lives and our Faith.

So what do we believe?

The Apostle’s Creed

It is in three sections. The first part states that: -

we believe in God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son our Lord,

In this we are stating that we believe the nature of God as explained in the Bible and in particular as the relationship between Father and Son is explained in John Chapter 1 and verse 1.

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under PontiusPilate, was crucified, dead and buried.He descended into Hell; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

Now, in this section we have just said that we know and believe the gospel story. In it we have the whole Gospel - from Jesus’ birth through his death and resurrection and his ascension into heaven. Finishing with the statement that we believe that, at the end of the world - and we don’t know when that will be (or whether it means the end of our lives or some other time in the future) - Christ will be there to decide whether we have been good or evil. Many Christians believe that He will be merciful, but in the Middle Ages, it was believed that this meant almost everybody would end up in Hell!

What do you think? Do you think Jesus, the one who died for our sakes on a Cross in Jerusalem will turn anyone who is prepared to make the effort to try and follow him, away?

The final section is a summary of everything we have stated in the first part, but it also reminds us that we have a third person in God - the Holy Spirit, who came upon the Christian’s for the first time at the day of Pentecost - and came to you in Baptism and in Confirmation. In fact He is always with us.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the Communion of the Saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen

So now we have said that we believe in God, who makes himself known to us in three ways - as the Father in Creation, as His Son in Jesus Christ and as the Holy Ghost in our daily lives. In this role he guides us, helps us when we need it and comforts us as well. Another name for the Holy Ghost is “The Comforter”. We have also said we believe in one holy “catholic” Church - which means that we believe that the Church was given to us by God to help us to work together to understand His wishes for us and to learn to know and love him.

Then we say that in the Communion we are sharing his love with everyone who believes in him. We also state that we believe that he will forgive us if we are really sorry when we do something wrong, just as our parents do.

The last two lines are interesting, because they show a difference of opinion between some sections of the Church. We are saying we believe in the resurrection of the Body of Christ - us in Our Lord, and in the life everlasting - in other words in a life beyond this one. That, in fact, is the whole point of it all!