Liturgical Catechesis
The Creeds: Faithf By Rev. William M. Cwirla
H H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 28
aving just come out of Trinity Sunday and that incredibly long Athanasian Creed, it’s time to talk about creeds and why they’re in the liturgy.
The traditional creed for Sunday is the Nicene Creed, which comes from the Council of Nicea (325 AD) with a Third Article patch on the Holy Spirit by the Council of Constantinople (381 AD). Since “Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed” is too much of a tongue twister on a Sunday morning, we just settle for “Nicene Creed.” It’s the most ecumenical (universal) creed in Christianity, confessed by both the East (Orthodox) and the West (Rome and Protestantism), except for that little disagreement about the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son (filioque), which
the East takes issue with, but we’ll take that up another time. The Apostles’ Creed, which was the baptismal creed of Rome from around 150 AD, is used during weekday services, daily devotion, and instruction. No, the apostles didn’t write the Apostles’ Creed, but it certainly reflects apostolic teaching straight from the New Testament, so it’s “apostolic” in all the right senses of that word. The Athanasian Creed is usually reserved for Trinity Sunday, though it can be used at other times as well, if you’re into really long creeds with lots of uncreateds and
incomprehensibles. It comes from 5th century Gaul (France) and was used as a test of orthodoxy for the clergy at a time when Arianism was the favored flavor in Europe. Arianism is the teaching, named after Arius, that the Son is not God in the same sense as the Father, and before the birth of Christ, the Son didn’t exist. Try flying that past John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” In the western liturgy, the Creed is one of five pillars of the Divine Service: Kyrie (“Lord, have mercy”), Gloria (“Glory to God in
