The Creeds as symbols of a shared faith
Many years ago when I was working in New York I found myself on a bus with a friend, arguing about religion. We had known each other since we were children in Hawaii; she was an atheist, or maybe an agnostic (I was never really sure), I was Roman Catholic, and religion had always been a strange area of silence and even strain between us, one of the few things we rarely talked about during slumber parties or after-school walks to the ice cream store. And now here we were in our twenties, living in New York, starting our adult lives, and she wanted to know why I still went to church every Sunday. I felt curiously shy and inarticulate, trying to talk about my faith in front of this person I had known for most of my life.
Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk/radio4
But she continued to push, asking me to explain how I could be part of the Catholic Church when I clearly didn’t believe everything they taught. The conversation kept getting more and more uncomfortable, at least for me, and I remember saying that those things she was talking about, like birth control and homosexuality and the ordination of women, just weren’t that important, or at least not compared to what really matters about Church. “Like what?” she wanted to know. I struggled to explain to her what it was like to receive Communion, or to go to Confession and be absolved of my sins, but it didn’t take me long to realize that I was getting nowhere fast.
And then suddenly I heard myself saying, “Here’s what’s really important for me about being part of the Church: I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth…” And I went on to recite the rest of the Nicene Creed on the cross-town bus through Manhattan.
Talk about awkward moments.
It was a long time before my friend ever brought up the subject of religion with me again. It was an uneasy truce: she wouldn’t push me to explain inconsistencies in my belief system if I wouldn’t embarrass her in public like that again.
I look back on that conversation, and with nearly twenty years and lots of graduate school under my belt I still don’t know what else I should have said to her. Obviously some of those things she was talking about, things I wanted to dismiss as “merely social issues,” really were important to me or I wouldn’t be an Episcopalian today. But looked at another way, I still think that what matters most has very little to do with what we–Christians and others–tend to argue about when it comes to church.
Recent posts about the Creed in this blog (thanks to Sherry Tyree for starting this conversation and to Travis Scholl for continuing it, as well as to all those who commented on both their posts) and the ongoing media story about relations between Catholics and Anglicans prompted me to remember this episode from my past. One of the reasons I find most of the public discussion of Rome’s recent “invitation” to disaffected Anglicans so profoundly distressing is that it leaves out any context beyond that of divisive social issues (and the occasional mention of Henry VIII). So, among other things, it leaves out the glaringly obvious fact that Anglicans and Roman Catholics have much more that unites them than they do that divides them. Like the Creeds, for example.
Which doesn’t mean that there aren’t legitimate reasons to be a Roman Catholic rather than an Anglican, or vice versa. I believe I can best live out my faith as an Episcopalian (and therefore by extension as an Anglican). Others will draw a different conclusion. Either way, I think we all need to fight very hard against the tendency to see this as about “wins” and “losses” for one church or another. This is not about picking sides, choosing teams, or keeping score. This is, or should be, about people’s deepest desire to follow Christ faithfully and with integrity.
The job of the Church, and therefore of its members, is to proclaim the resurrection and to bring Christ’s reconciling love to life in the world. The Creeds keep the incarnational, Trinitarian center of our faith right where it belongs–front and center. It’s so tempting to add to that central message, to give it just a tiny spin that makes our version of the truth a little more appealing, or a little more correct, or a little more relevant. It’s probably impossible to completely avoid that temptation. But then where does the spinning end?
That’s why creeds are so important, and why I’m so grateful to be part of a church that includes the Nicene Creed weekly in its liturgy for the Eucharist and the Apostles’ Creed twice a day in the Daily Office. They remind us of the basics, the things that so many of us who call ourselves Christians share. They come out of a part of our history that was even more wracked with conflict and power struggles than our own and yet they have stood the test of time. They don’t tell us what to do, but they do give us some sense of the rationale that should stand behind the choices we make.
Pamela Dolan is on staff at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Webster Groves and is a Candidate for Holy Orders. After high school in Hawaii and college in California, she earned a master's degree in theology from Harvard before spending several years in New York studying medieval religion and literature. Pamela is married with two children. 
Pamela,
Your conversation with your friend shows another reason why creeds can be important. They can be - to use a football term - a straight arm for those who want to know what you truly believe, instead of what you were taught to believe. Keep them at arm’s length so they don’t know you too well.
Still, a creed, is better than a referral. In my experience in talking to Catholics, I am advised to go see clergy - which is like walking off the field of play. Creeds may “remind us of the basics, the things that so many of us who call ourselves Christians share” but they also provide a sense of superiority and indifference to others.
Thanks, Pam…and Thanks Dave also. In a sense, I think you’re both right. The creeds can and should unite people of faith. Also, however, they DO create a stark dividing line between believers and non-believers. And I think, in part, that is also their intent. I happen to think one of the greatest tragedies of modern American Christianity is the disappearance of the creeds and symbols from many churches. I visited one of the newly built giant churches in my community, and when I walked into the auditorium (that’s what they call it, not a sanctuary), what struck me is that I felt like I was in a theater, not a house of worship. The front wall was dominated by two jumbotron screens and a stage with a band set up. I had to look carefully to find a visible cross.
Sorry, I joined them in their celebration….but I never felt like I was in a sacred place set aside for worship. By rejecting the symbols and the history, I think the Church is in danger of loosing much more than it stands to gain.
Davel, the assumption behind your comment is that because the Creeds are what I was taught to believe they are not what I actually believe. You assume or conclude that I recited the Nicene Creed to my friend to keep her at arm’s length so that she wouldn’t know me too well.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It was uncomfortable in the extreme to expose myself to my friend that way–to expose myself as neither more nor less than a Creedal Christian. I grew up in an environment that valued individuality, creativity, intellect and achievement. My reliance on the Creed strips me of those perceived accomplishments or values. I did not make it up. I can’t get any credit for improving it or even understanding it especially well.
When I reached into the depth of my heart and soul to try to find words for my faith, it was a surprise to me to find that the words were already there. I do not feel indifference or superiority to those who have a different faith or no faith at all. And whatever faults I might have as a Christian and a person–and I have many–I certainly don’t see how they can be blamed on the Creeds.
It also occurs to me that the title of this post is a little off; it gets to the point of the second half of the post, but doesn’t address the first. “hs” is quite right in saying that Creeds “DO create a stark dividing line between believers and non-believers” and that that is part of their intent. It’s not a matter of superiority, as I said above, but of difference. It wouldn’t have been doing my friend a favor to pretend that there was no difference in our beliefs. My answer may have been insufficient, and awkward, but at least it was honest.
Pamela, thank you for the clarification.
Thank you, Pamela, a most rewarding read. I especially appreciated your comment, “I grew up in an environment that valued individuality, creativity, intellect and achievement. My reliance on the Creed strips me of those perceived accomplishments or values. I did not make it up. I can’t get any credit for improving it or even understanding it especially well.” This discipline of the self is one of the overlooked gifts of orthodoxy, in my experience.
It’s good to remember that what is merely a news item of interest to some people is a deeply painful personal crux for others. My best to you and others who are struggling with this situation.
Thanks for commenting, Rosalynde; it’s always good to hear from fellow bloggers.
And thanks to davel. Your comment, as is so often the case, pushed me to go a little deeper and be a little clearer. I don’t always like being pushed, but it’s part of what doing this work is all about. For myself, I had never thought of the Creeds in the way you seem to, and it was important for me to try to see that perspective on it.
This kind of exchange is what makes a blog such a potentially rich and fruitful medium, in that the exchange is itself becomes more important than reaching agreement.
Pam,
I’ve just now gotten to read this post, and it’s great. I accept that the distinctives matter, and may even benefit the univeral church - in that we balance each other out, or challenge each other in our various faith traditions. But you are right that what ultimately unites “credal Christians” (whether we say the creeds regularly in our worship or not) is far greater than the things that divide us. And I especially love what you said here:
“The job of the Church, and therefore of its members, is to proclaim the resurrection and to bring Christ’s reconciling love to life in the world. The Creeds keep the incarnational, Trinitarian center of our faith right where it belongs–front and center.”
Beautiful summation of the good news we should all be carrying into the world!
Thanks for this informative article. I think that I have came to know a lot of things after reading this article.
“This is, or should be, about people’s deepest desire to follow Christ faithfully and with integrity.”
I believe the above statement by Mrs. Dolan to be the most accurate statement of all in being a Christian not matter the denomination. I find it very disheartening when dominations look upon other dominations as flawed and unacceptable to God claiming that only those of their denomination are acceptable to God. Certainly, all the different dominations have some doctrines that others and even God would find scriptually inaccurate but I don’t think most of them would be the cause of anyone to losing their salvation over when the desire and attempt is to follow Christ faithfully and with integrity. It is so disappointing when I hear some Christian leaders calling other denominations heretics, cults etc. and other such disgusting insulting name calling. It needs to cease.
I have heard claims of just about every denomination out there being called a cult or heretics because some of their doctrines and interpretations of scripture being different than what theirs are. When I hear people speak such about other denominations, I run from such people even if the denomination has something totally incorrect because I know that such talk and name calling is not inspired from the spirit of God.
We all may not agree with some of the practices of other denominations but if the practices are not outright deadly sinful and in complete contradiction to what is written in the Word of God we all need to lighten up and just begin to do much praying for the correct interpretations and understanding of God’s Word without all the divisions among people whose deepest desire is to follow Christ faithfully and with integrity.