Smith,
Mark. “Formulary Friday: Why Creeds?” Church Society. 30 May 2014. http://churchsociety.org/blog/entry/formulary_friday_why_creeds#When:06:00:00Z. 30 May 2014.
Formulary Friday: Why Creeds?
Posted by Mark Smith, 30 May 2014
In every major service in the Prayer Book, the congregation
recite one of three Creeds, helpfully laid out for us in Article VIII:
“‘Of the Three Creeds’. The Three Creeds, Nicene Creed,
Athanasius’s Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed,
ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most
certain warrants of holy Scripture.”
At the Reformation, the Church of England made it clear
that it remained part of, and in continuity with, the Catholic Church – and one
way it did this was by retaining the Catholic Creeds. Scripture remains, as in
all things, our primary authority – but these three Creeds provide us with
briefer forms of that deposit of faith – they give us salvation in summary.
Creeds, then, summarise Biblical truths, and guard those
truths from error and false teaching. They also allow communal affirmation of
those Biblical truths – just as we were saved into a family of believers, so we
praise God as a family.
In Exodus 15, Moses,
Miriam and the people of Israel sing to God of their deliverance, exalting his
character and glorifying his name – and in the Creeds we do the same.
It’s one reason, of course, why we stand for Creeds – to
make it clear that this is something that I personally assent to, truths that I
personally take my stand upon.
Creeds also identify us as part of the Catholic Church.
Each congregation that stands to affirm the Creed does so not only as the
Church in one particular time and place, but joins that greater voice, which
extends over the earth and echoes down the centuries.
In these old words, we receive and pass on the Christian
tradition, the unchanging deposit of our faith, whilst receiving its truth and
wisdom precisely into our own particular situation and context.
And so we are prepared for the worship of heaven, where
before the Throne we shall sing praises to God and tell of his wonderful works
(cf. Rev. 4-5).
So next Sunday, when you stand to say the Creed, do it with
gusto!
Mark Smith is Curate at All Saints, Little Shelford,
Cambridgeshire
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