2. February 22: The Road: Morality,
Tradition, and Hope
March 1: The Father: God in the
Midst of Ashes
March 8: Second Sunday Breakfast
March 15: The Son: The Word of
God
March 22: The Coast: Love’s Embrace
3. Dinner at 6:30, Presentation at 7 PM.
Childcare offered each evening!
February 25: Lust and Gluttony– Rev. Jimmy
Grace
March 4: Greed – Rev. Carissa Baldwin
March 11: Sloth and Wrath – Rev Eileen
O’Brien
March 18: Envy – Rev. Melvin Gray
March 25: Pride – Rev. Glenice Como
5. We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of
the Father, God from God, Light from Light ,true God from true God,
begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things
were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven :by the power of the
Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was
buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he
ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom
will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the
Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and
glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and
apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
6. What is the Holy Spirit?
How do you imagine the Spirit to appear?
Have you experienced the Holy Spirit in your
life? What was that experience like?
7. By beginning this third and final section of
the Nicene Creed in the same way as the first
two sections (the words
“we believe…”) the framers
of the Creed are saying that
the Holy Spirit is to be thought
of in the same manner of
importance as God and Jesus.
8. The Holy Spirit is called “Lord,” again
demonstrating equality with God the Father
and God the Son.
Only God who creates can give life:
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the
dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from
the dead will give life to your mortal bodies
also through his Spirit that dwells in you”
- Romans 8:11
9. This statement has generated the most
controversy than
any other part of
the Creed, and
was one of the
causes for the
split of the
Orthodox and
what became the
Roman Catholic
Church in 1054.
10. The Creed originally had “the one who is
coming out of the father” which is used in the
Orthodox Church, but not in the Roman
Catholic or Protestant versions of the creed.
The Filio Que clause “and the Son” was added
at the 3rd council of Toledo in 589 CE.
11. This revision was condemned by the Patriarch
of Constantinople based on his
understanding of John 15:26:
“When the Advocate (i.e. Holy Spirit) comes,
whom I will send to you from the Father, the
Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he
will testify on my behalf.”
12.
13. The New Testament says NOTHING about the
gender of the Holy Spirit, or about the Spirit
being worshipped.
This sentence is a theological inference based
on John 4: 23-24
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when
the true worshippers will worship the Father
in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such
as these to worship him. God is spirit, and
those who worship him must worship in spirit
and truth.”
14. The final statement about the Holy Spirit in
the Creed – God has revealed God’s self
through the work of the Holy Spirit through
people – the prophets.
Table Conversation:
1. Who are modern day prophets you believe
the Spirit of God to be speaking through?
Does prophecy imply predicting the future, or
is it more a commentary on the present?
15. Church - the continuation of the incarnation, the
embodied presence of the resurrected Christ
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
ONE – One church, many denominations.
HOLY – The church is Holy because it is called to
be different in the world, to witness to the world
the truth about God. It is set apart to be holy as
Israel in the Hebrew Bible was also set apart.
CATHOLIC – In this sense, the word “catholic”
means “universal”- a church that embraces
differences within a whole, larger unity.
16. Apostolic – The church has a historical
continuity with the lives of the apostles. The
church in the 21st century is still measured to
the standard of the apostle’s time.
Taken together, to describe the church as
“one, holy, catholic, and apostolic” is an ideal
that the church never has, and probably never
will, realize.
17. The Creed links the forgiveness of sins
directly to baptism, a connection that is
firmly grounded in the New Testament:
“Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
so that your sins may be forgiven; and you
will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”
Acts 2:38
18. We are looking forward to the full revelation
of God’s power as creator and ruler of the
world.
19. Amen simply means “may it be”.
When we say “Amen” after reciting the Creed,
we are saying “may we actually agree with
those words we have said, may they actually
be true, and may our lives be ones that
actually express these truths in a consistent
and compelling way.”
