We say the Nicene Creed every Sunday because it’s the Church’s official definition of what Christians believe. It’s not optional. It’s not one statement among many. It’s the statement that came from the whole Church gathered together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The Creed was hammered out at two of the seven Ecumenical Councils. The first was Nicaea in 325, when bishops from across the Christian world gathered to deal with a priest named Arius who was teaching that Jesus was a created being, not truly God. The bishops said no, Jesus is “begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father.” That phrase matters. It means Jesus isn’t sort of divine or partly God. He’s fully God, always has been, always will be.
Then in 381 at Constantinople, the bishops expanded the Creed to address confusion about the Holy Spirit. Some were treating the Spirit like an impersonal force. The Council said the Spirit is “the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified.” Three Persons, one God.
What It Does in Our Worship
Every Sunday at St. Michael’s, right after the Gospel reading, we stand and say the Creed together. This isn’t a history lesson. We’re not reciting something ancient just to be traditional. We’re confessing what we believe right now, today, in Beaumont in 2024. When you say “I believe” with everyone else, you’re joining your voice to every Orthodox Christian across the world and across time.
It also prepares us for Communion. Before we approach the chalice to receive Christ’s Body and Blood, we state clearly who we believe Christ is. That’s not a coincidence. What you believe about Jesus determines whether you can truly commune with Him.
For catechumens preparing for baptism, the Creed is what you’ll be asked to affirm. Can you say these words and mean them? That’s the question. Because Orthodoxy isn’t about having certain feelings or making a decision for Jesus one time at a youth rally. It’s about believing specific things that the Church has always believed.
Why It Matters That We Don’t Change It
Here’s where things get uncomfortable for some folks coming from other backgrounds. The Orthodox Church uses the exact Creed that came from those councils. We haven’t updated it or edited it or added clarifications. When the Western Church added the word filioque (meaning “and the Son”) to say the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father “and the Son,” we said no. That wasn’t what the Council said. You can’t just change an ecumenical statement on your own authority.
This isn’t stubbornness. It’s about who has the authority to define Christian belief. The councils spoke for the whole Church. No patriarch, no pope, no denomination gets to revise that unilaterally. The filioque controversy was one of the major reasons for the split between East and West in 1054.
If you grew up Baptist or non-denominational, you might be thinking, “But what about the Bible? Isn’t that our only authority?” We’d say the Creed doesn’t replace Scripture. It summarizes what Scripture teaches, interpreted by the Church that wrote and compiled Scripture in the first place. The bishops at Nicaea and Constantinople weren’t inventing new doctrines. They were clarifying what had always been believed, using language precise enough to exclude heresies.
What Makes This Different
Some Protestant churches recite the Nicene Creed too, which is wonderful. But there’s often a different understanding of what it is. For many Protestants, it’s a helpful historical document, a good summary, something churches can choose to use or not. For us, it’s binding. It’s the faith. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware put it this way: the Creed is the Church’s response to God’s revelation, spoken by the whole Body of Christ under the Spirit’s guidance.
When you become Orthodox, you’re not joining a church that has a statement of faith. You’re joining the Church that produced the statement of faith that defined Christianity for everyone. That sounds bold, maybe even arrogant, but it’s what we actually believe. The Orthodox Church is the continuation of the Church that gathered at those councils.
And here’s the thing, when you stand in the liturgy and say those words with everyone else, you feel it. You’re not alone in your faith. You’re connected to the bishops at Nicaea, to the martyrs, to St. Ignatius of Antioch, to every Orthodox Christian in every place. The same words, the same faith, the same Spirit.
If you’re still exploring Orthodoxy and you’re not sure you can affirm everything in the Creed yet, that’s okay. That’s what the catechumenate is for. Bring your questions. We’d rather you wrestle honestly with “light from light, true God from true God” than just repeat words you don’t understand. But at some point, if you’re going to be Orthodox, you’ll need to be able to stand and say it and mean it.
