20Archive/Archive/Pentecost%20I%202008%20-%2

Conflict &compromise

Profound disagreement,bitter struggle, intensedebate—in the midst ofthese the Nicene Creedtook shape

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What’s in aheresy?In every era of theChurch’s life, peoplehave offeredalternative ways ofbelieving. Here’s alook at heresy—whatit is and how it works

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Saying yes to themystery of life

Well-known author,teacher, andBenedictine sisterJoan Chittisterreflects on truth,mystery, and themeaning of belief

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www.edusc.orgVisit our diocese online

CrosswalkThe official publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina

Easter 2008

inside

Devotion &trust

When we say “Webelieve” we arespeaking not of hardfacts but rather ofallegiance,commitment, andholding dear

9 Creeds–Creeds–What we believeWhat we believe

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Creeds - we believe7.qxp:CrosswalkEaster04q5 3/26/08 9:12 AM Page 2

Easter 2008 Crosswalk

CrosswalkOfficial Publication of the

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Executive Assistant toBishop Henderson Jane B. Goldsmith

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Canon to the OrdinaryThe Rev. Michael A. Bullock

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Assistant to the Canon to the Ordinary The Rev. d’Rue Hazel

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Assistant for AdministrationRoslyn Hook

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Julie Price [email protected]

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Canon for Youth Ministry The Rev. L. Sue von Rautenkranz

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Assistant for Communications and Youth MinistryBethany Human

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The Ven. Frederick C. [email protected]

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Easter, 2008Alleluia, Christ is risen!

Sisters and Brothers, dearly Beloved,

Why creeds? Creeds give Christians their identity byshaping and forming authentic understanding of JesusChrist and, thus, our own existence and our purpose as theBody of Christ—corporately, and individually, as membersof it.

ChallengesHas there ever been a period in the Christian era when Christian doctrine,

expressed clearly and forthrightly in the creeds, has not been challenged by somedramatic shift in thinking, or by some unusual epoch or event? Challenges—some of which have led to a deeper and broader understanding of Christian faithand doctrine, and some of which are new or revived examples of earlier heresies—are rife—in the Middle Ages, in the Reformation, in the Enlightenment, and—within the memory of some of us—as a result of the implications anddevelopment of the thinking of Darwin and Einstein.

Thus it is critical for us, in the earliest years of the 21st century, and for allwho strive to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ, to know what we believe. Theclearest expression of authentic Christian doctrine is found in the creeds. Toknow and understand both the content and the development of the creeds is tobe prepared for challenges to the faith in our own time. To be unaware, unsure,or shaky in our understanding of doctrine is to be unprepared—unprepared forchallenges, whether new or revived in different guises—and unprepared to guideaccurately and authentically those committed to our charge.

Remembering who we areLet us remember, however, that we are not saved by doctrine, authentic or

not. Holy Scripture, symbolized liturgically during Lent, especially Holy Week,demonstrates that we are saved by the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection ofJesus Christ, into which we are baptized when we commit ourselves to JesusChrist as Lord. So it seems clear to me that the only qualification for joining theChristian community is to respond to Jesus Christ in trust and love; to witness inword and action to the “good news” of the biblical story; and to join with othermembers of the faithful community in the knowledge, understanding, and recitalof creedal statements that remind us of our identity—all, to be sure, by the graceof God. Among the important consequences: revelation of the acts of God, pastand present, to love and redeem God’s people.

Thus creeds are the focus of the articles in this issue of Crosswalk. My hopeand prayer is that they will clarify our understanding of creedal statements in thehistory of Christianity and suggest their rightful and helpful place in the practiceof our faith and worship—and thus strengthen us for this spiritual journey whichwe call life.

With prayers for a continuing, joyful celebration of the resurrection of ourLord, I remain

Faithfully yours in our Lord,

Upper South Carolina VII

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Save the date—October 17-18“Equipped for action: Changing Lives” is

theme for this year’s Leadership

Conference and ConventionEveryone’s invited for a whole day of workshops

(18th) AND some good old-fashioned Great Gathering spirit!

The Diocesan Leadership Conference for 2008will be held in conjunction with the businessportion of the 86th Convention in October. Theleadership training / convention program, whichwill take place at the Columbia MetropolitanConvention Center on October 18, will offer aninspirational speaker, workshops on a variety oftopics, and many surprises—AND EVERYONE’SINVITED!! Details to come.

October 17-18 is also the weekend of theUSC–LSU football game, at home in Columbia.Because hotel space will be limited, it is essentialthat you arrange for overnight accommodationsNOW. Three hotels have blocked rooms: HamptonInn (803.231.2868), Rodeway Inn (803.779.7790),and Comfort Suites (803.744.4000). Additionalinfo is available on the diocesan Web site,www.edusc.org.

Meet our new canon to theordinary, the Rev. MichaelBullock

On February 1, the Rev. MichaelAnderson Bullock joined BishopHenderson’s staff as canon to theordinary, succeeding the Rev. MarkClevenger, who accepted a call toserve as rector of St. Anselm’s on Long

Island. Crosswalk sat down to chat with CanonBullock, and here’s what he had to say.

CW: What is a canon to the ordinary? (And, for thatmatter, what’s an ordinary?)MB: The word canon has a Latin root, canonicus,meaning one who lives under a rule of life. InAnglican usage a canon is a person who may be layor ordained and who traditionally serves on abishop’s staff or a cathedral.

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Bishop’s desk FROM THE AArroouunndd tthheeDDiioocceessee

Please send all Crosswalkaddress corrections, deletions oradditions to:

Trevett’s Mailing Service

2217 Lake Murray Blvd.

Columbia, SC 29212

phone: 803.781.3150

email: [email protected]

Bishop’s desk


Crosswalk Easter 2008

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Creeds are often a source of controversy amongChristians. The extreme Protestant (Reformed Church)view claims that creeds represent an instrument ofecclesiastical tradition and power; they conjure up anegative view of a catholicism shaped too much byphilosophy and too little by the Bible.

Despite the fact that we are philosophically andtheologically on the edge of a postmodern era, with itsabhorrence of absolutes and a concern “more for thetrees, than the forest; more for each blade of grass thanthe whole lawn,” we cannot ignore that creeds affirm amuch larger picture of reality. Creeds lift the backdropon a magnificent drama of God, while we, perhapsunaware of the glorious drama behind us, tap a little softshoe of our own existence stage left.

Response vs. beliefLuke Timothy Johnson, a New Testament scholar

and Roman Catholic theologian, in his earlier years hada personal preference for an existential understanding offaith as “response to God,” as opposed to faith as “beliefin God.” This is an important distinction as weChristians now come to the end of the modern era, anera in which “right belief ” often determined whether ornot one was identified as either saved or damned. TheJesus Seminar, a group of distinguished scholarsorganized in 1985 to “renew the quest of the historicalJesus and to report the results of its research,” holds:“The Christ of creed and dogma, who had been firmlyin place in the Middle Ages, can no longer commandthe assent of those who have seen the heavens throughGalileo’s telescope” (Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed[2004], p. 4).

Fingers crossedAssent to a belief, even if it is a simple assent to “Jesus

Christ as my Lord and Savior,” plays a very importantpart in the history of Christianity. There is a distinctiveway in which Christian thought defines itself in relationto the events in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.The events were understood to be God’s decisive acts inhistory and thus to be affirmed in a credo, a statementof belief. Any faithful Roman Catholic or staunchProtestant will say that to speak publicly a creed doesnot guarantee salvation, but it is said with fingerscrossed, believing, at least partially, that it does.

“Hammered” truthsCreeds in Christian history are the product of

concerns to affirm theological truths that have beenhammered out on the anvil of interpretation andmeaning when the good news of Jesus, the Christ,confronted Jewish piety, Greek philosophy, and Romanlaw. There are instances in the Christian scriptures whenthe familiar question “Master, what must I do to besaved?” is answered by the equally familiar words

“Believe only in (on) the name (person) of Jesus Christ.”The implication is that belief saves.

The litigious nature of Roman society lent itselfnicely to the development of statements of belief. Creedswere the product of the desire to speak a universal truthso that wherever witness to Jesus was made, questionsabout his relationship to God, his own nature, and thework he accomplished would find agreement among allChristians.

“Catholicity” The word that needs serious attention is the word

catholic. The Christian family believes and considersitself “the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” Theword catholic means both “universal” and “authentic.”While there were local creeds, there was an ultimateconcern to affirm Christian truths throughout theRoman Empire. The threefold test of catholicity, laiddown by St. Vincent of Lérins, offers the bestunderstanding of the term: catholicity means what hasbeen believed everywhere, always and by all. Butcatholicity also means the authenticity of belief andpractice in the Church. The authentic faith is to belearned by studying the historic creeds and engaging alldisciples of Christ in discussion of their meaning in eachsuccessive generation.

The first creedThe first of the Christian community’s creeds were

baptismal creeds, meaning essential beliefs affirmed bythe newly baptized and eventually by catechumens, oradults in an extended discipline of prayer and teachingin preparation for baptism at sunrise on Easter morning.St. Ambrose speaks of the Apostles’ Creed (390 A.D.), anoutgrowth of an earlier Roman creed. It was developedin three units based upon the threefold baptismalcommand of Jesus, recounted in chapter 28, verse 19, ofMatthew’s Gospel. This first of the catholic creeds wasattributed to the apostles, although it was not composedby them. Its content was theological, including suchbeliefs as Jesus’ descent into hell and the communion ofthe saints. The Apostles’ Creed is included in theliturgies of most Christian churches and serves as one ofthe four catholic creeds by which Christians confirmtheir communal identity.

“Conciliar” creedsIn the words of John Macquarrie, “The structures in

which the catholicity of the Church gets embodied areprimarily the catholic creeds.” In addition to baptismalcreeds, there are “conciliar” creeds, those creedsdeveloped out of the theological and spiritual strugglesof an ecumenical Christian council. While the councilswere ecumenical in intent, the battles that took placethere were often so serious as to divide the Easternbishops from the Western bishops.

Seven councils, three creedsThere were seven ecumenical councils occurring

between 325 and 787 A.D. Out of these sevenconciliatory councils there developed an additional threecatholic creeds:

The Nicene Creed (325 A.D.) was formulated atNicaea (in present-day Turkey), and furtherdeveloped at Constantinople (381 A.D.). Its primaryconcern was to establish orthodox belief and tocondemn Arianism, a theological position thatrejected Christ as wholly God and wholly man. It issometimes referred to as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. (Read the original, 325version on page 5 of this issue of Crossswalk.)

The Athanasian Creed (after 428 A.D.), wasproduced in Gaul (possibly in what is now Arles,France). It affirmed the doctrines of the Trinity andthe Incarnation and included specific articles ofdamnation. It was popular in liturgies of RomanCatholic, Lutheran, and Anglican services andremains among the four historic creeds in The Bookof Common Prayer (p. 864). This creed is calledAthanasian because in early times it was attributedto St. Athanasius, a fourth-century archbishop ofAlexandria. This attribution has since beendiscredited.

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CLAIMING CHRISTIAN IDENTITY . . .

qeb clro `^qelif` òbbap^mlpqibpÛI=kf`bkbI=^qe^k^pf^kI=èî`balkf^kBy Philip H. Whitehead

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By Timothy M. ErvolinaAs a lover of both irony and whimsy, I am forever

amused by those Christian fellowships that lay claim tobeing “non-liturgical” or “non-creedal” (or both). Everyworshipping body has a “liturgy,” whether or not it is inrubrical, written form, since “liturgy” is the very act ofworship. And the notion of “non-creedal” Christianfellowships should be placed alongside square circles,married bachelors, and deafening silences: they simplydon’t exist.

Belief statementsEvery Christian fellowship has a defined set of

beliefs, even if those beliefs are as simple as “we have nocreed but Christ” (itself a derivative of the earliestChristian creed, recited by Martha of Bethany: “I believethat thou art the Christ, the Son of God.”) Creeds arebelief statements, laying out the parameters of personaland corporate definitions of faith. If you believeanything at all about God or Jesus or the Bible, you havea creed. If you worship, you have a liturgy.

In the catholic tradition, the personal statement offaith, the Apostles’ Creed, is part of the baptismal rite,and the corporate statement of faith, the Nicene Creed,is part of the eucharistic rite. The question for Christiansis: are the creeds essential to a life of Christian faith?**

Stuff that mattersIn the 21st century, it may seem that statements of

belief from the third and fourth centuries are little morethan pieces of meaningless tradition, formed as theywere in the theological and political controversies of theearliest years of Christian history. Who really cares—torecollect the essential controversy that produced theNicene Creed— whether or not the Son is of a“homoousias” (“similar”) or “homoiousias” (“same”)substance with the Father? Since nobody believes in athree-tiered universe any more (heaven, earth, and theunderworld), are the statements that the Son “camedown from heaven” or “ascended to the right hand ofthe Father” not just mythological filler? In addition to allthat, there’s “begotten, not made,” the virginalconception, “the resurrection of the body,” and all theother obscure theological minutiae of the creeds. Does

any of this stuff really matter? Why can’t we just chuckit out the door of the narthex, along with indulgences,priestly celibacy, and other long-ago-shed beliefs andpractices?

Vital purposesIn spite of—or rather, because of—their esoteric

nature, the creeds serve several vital purposes for a life ofChristian faith. First, they set the boundaries ofdoctrine, beyond which teachers and preachers of thefaith must not go. While the creeds are silent about thenature of biblical authority or the Christian communion(Anglican and otherwise), sexual mores, and Churchpolity, they are explicit about the nature of God andChrist. This is one reason the Nicene Creed is recitedafter the sermon: even if the preacher expresses that heor she believes something apart from the Creed, thecongregation answers, “Well, Preacher, you may believethat, but we believe…”

Boundary markerIn this laying of boundaries, the creeds have a second

purpose: to define heresy or unorthodoxy. One mayargue from scripture that homosexuals should or shouldnot be ordained to ministry, but neither position can beconstrued as heresy, since the argument is outside theboundary of doctrine. One may find the argument ofpre-millennial dispensationalism delusional (I do!), butit is not heretical, since it defines itself within the creedalstatement that Jesus will “come in glory to judge theliving and the dead.” The creeds are ecumenicaldocuments, laying the foundation for unity among thevarious and unfortunate divisions in the Church. Theygive great latitude for interpretation or even re-interpretation, but, like any boundary, crossing overtakes one to another place altogether.

Defining our witnessThe third, and most important, purpose of the

creeds is evangelical. That is, the creeds define ourwitness to the world about who God is for us. In an agedominated by post-modernism, mocking the verynotion that “truth” may be defined, the Church standsfirm on a few ancient, unchanging beliefs laid out in thecreeds. The world might be fascinated with the crucifixas an art form, but the creeds define its real purpose: thatJesus was crucified “for our sake.”

The world may love the idea of the revolutionaryJesus, struggling against the corrupt and oppressiveRoman Empire, but the creeds call him "Lord" and"Son of God." The world may fret about whetherclimate change or nuclear holocaust will destroy life onEarth, but the creeds proclaim that someday there willbe a "resurrection of the dead" and a "world to come."By defining the essentials of Christian belief, the creedshelp us to explain what we believe to a world confusedby religion and hungry for Something to believe in.

Worth believingAs essential as the creeds are to a life of faith, they

cannot take the place of our relationship with the Onewe believe upon. We do not come preaching a creed, butpreaching Christ crucified, died, buried, and risen. Thegospel is not about Church polity or which bishop hasallied with which province. The gospel is about a risenLord whose followers treat others with compassion,accept those who are different from them, who strugglefor justice and whose faith is alive and powerful. Andthat's worth believing.

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SQUARE circles, MARRIED bachelors,

DEAFENING silences . . .Why the creeds are ESSENTIAL

ONE IOTA OF DIFFERENCEThe essential controversy which produced the NiceneCreed was the heated argument over the question ofwhether the Son is of a “similar” substance or of “the same”substance as the Father. Since there was only one Greekletter, iota, that separated the word homoousias (“similar”)from the word homoiousias (“same”), it was said that there“was only an iota of difference.” mÜçíçW=«=píÅÉäá~=ö==aêÉ~ãëíáãÉKÅçã

** For the purpose of this article, the term creeds is used torefer to the two great ecumenical creeds, the Apostles’ andthe Nicene, or Nicene-Constantinopolitan, Creeds. On thelater so-called catholic creeds, see the article by Philip H.Whitehead on page 3 of this issue of Crosswalk.


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“We believe in God the Father, the Almighty”— thewords of the Nicene Creed seem to be a firm anchor inthe restless seas of the Christian faith. They define thecontent of our faith and draw a sharp line between theorthodox and the heterodox. But far from being etchedin stone by the hand of God, or even by a council ofbishops, they were the hard-fought result of a shakycompromise, the product of decades of conflict, andindeed, they did not bring an end to theological conflictin the early Church.

Who was this Jesus anyway?Christians in the third and early fourth centuries

were in bitter conflict over the nature of Christ. WasJesus human or divine, both, or some third kind ofbeing? Was the Logos, the Word, the second person ofthe Trinity, of the same nature as God the Father? Wasthe Logos created by God? These and many otherquestions led to sharp divisions. Conflict came to a headwhen Arius, a leader of the church of Alexandria, clearlyand forcefully articulated a biblically based theology thatdenied the Son’s equality with the Father. Arius and hisfollowers used scriptural passages such as Wisdom’sspeech in Proverbs 8:22: “The Lord created me at thebeginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.”

The inconceivableBoth sides emphasized the transcendence and other-

ness of God. For some, it was inconceivable that God theFather could be at any time without God’s Word andWisdom, that is, without the second person of theTrinity. For Arius, it was inconceivable that God theFather could have any equal. In addition, the phrase“eternally begotten,” which had been introduced in thethird century by Origen, seemed nonsensical to Arius. Ifthe Word was begotten of the Father, then by definition,there had to be a time when the Word did not exist.

Enter ConstantineIn 325 Emperor Constantine intervened directly in

the christological conflict provoked by Arius. Heconvened a council of bishops from throughout theRoman Empire to decide the matter. This was in itselfrevolutionary. Constantine had legalized Christianityonly a decade or so earlier, an act that finally brought toan end the persecution that had been introduced by hispredecessor Diocletian. At the same time, he and hisfamily, especially his mother Helena and sisterConstancia, had begun building churches andpatronizing the Church. This dramatic shift in fortuneswas beyond anything any Christian had expected orhoped for. When Constantine convened the council,many of the bishops in attendance bore on their bodiesscars from torture they had received under the earlier

imperial administration, and all of them rememberedvividly the persecutions of the past.

“Of the same substance”Although he attended the council, and according to

contemporary accounts, presided over it, Constantinewas as yet unbaptized; he would only receive thesacrament on his death bed in 439. But it was apparentlyhe who proposed the compromise formula thateventually held the day—the Greek word homoousion,meaning of the same substance, was agreed on as theproper way to describe the relationship between God theFather and God the Son. Arius was condemned, as werethose few bishops who refused to sign the document,and everyone went home. Back home, many of thosebishops had second thoughts. While there were anynumber of objections, these tended to boil down to two:1) of course the term homoousion was not biblical; 2) formany Christians the notion of God the Father and theSon being of the same substance did not adequatelyprotect the absolute sovereignty and transcendence ofGod.

Fixed formIn fact, the Nicene Creed is not directly a product of

the Council of Nicaea at all. Conflict would ragethroughout the fourth century, and it was at a latercouncil that the form of the creed we have was finallyfixed. The words that we recite in the creed bear witnessto that bitter fourth-century conflict. All of the clauses inthe creed that relate to Jesus Christ address Arianism:“begotten not made, of one Being with the Father,Through him all things were made.” Indeed, the creed ofNicaea goes on to include several anathemas—orcondemnations—of Arius’s position:

And those that say "There was when he was not,"and, "Before he was begotten he was not,"and, that "He came into being from what-was-not,"

or those who allege, that the son of God is "Of another substance or essence"or "created,"or "changeable,"or "alterable,"

these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes.

conf l i c t & compromiseThe shaping of the Nicene CreedBy D. Jonathan Grieser Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.

In the year 312, on the eve of the Battle of Milivian Bridge following which Constantine becamesenior ruler of the empire, it is said that he received instructions in a dream to fight under thecross of Christ. Emerging victorious, he attributed his triumph to the Christian God and soonafter, in 313, issued the Edict of Milan, which legalized Christianity. The bust of Constantinepictured at left resides in the National Museum in Belgrade.

The Creed of Nicaea

This is the first creed of Nicaea, 325 A.D.

We believe in one God the Father All-sovereign,maker of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is of thesubstance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light,true God of true God, begotten not made, of onesubstance with the Father, through whom all thingswere made, things in heaven and things on the earth;who for us men and for our salvation came downand was made flesh, and became man, suffered, androse on the third day, ascended into the heavens, iscoming to judge living and dead.

And in the Holy Spirit.And those that say “There was when he was

not,”and, “Before he was begotten he was not,”

and that, “He came into being from what-is-not,”or those that allege, that the son of God is

“Of another substance or essence”or “created,”or “changeable”or “alterable,”

these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes.

From Documents of the Christian Church, Second Edition, Selected and edited by

Henry Bettenson (1967), p. 25.



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The catholic and orthodox faith summarized in thecreeds is the deep, central current of belief in the life ofthe Church. In every era of the Church’s life, peoplehave offered alternatives to the ways of believing that areheld up by the Church. Heresy is the formal denial ofany defined doctrine of the catholic faith; it is apersistent and intentional swimming outside themainstream of the Church’s faith.

Fantastic, dull, flat, or boring . . .Some heresies, such as the many varieties of

Gnosticism with their bizarre portraits of Jesus, areweirdly fantastic, far less plausible than the faith we havereceived. Others are hyperrationalistic, reducing the richcomplexity and creative tension of the historic faith tosomething flat and dull.

Heresies that reduce Jesus to a mere teacher or thebeauty of Trinitarian doctrine to simple divine unity areexamples of boring, rationalistic heresies. Both thefantastic and rationalistic heresies can be found in justabout every era of the Church’s life, from the earlyChurch into our day. While teachers of heresy oftenimagine they have discovered some great new truth, theyusually offer a warmed-up version of something veryold. In heresy, there is nothing new under the sun.

Ancient heresiesThe ancient heresies were focused on two great

creedal truths in particular: the doctrine of theIncarnation and the doctrine of the Trinity. Both aretruths of enormous beauty; both are beyond our usualcategories of analysis. The Church’s creeds and thewritings of our authoritative theologians seek toarticulate, using human language, the deep mysteries ofChrist’s being and the triune life of God.

Even as we claim the catholic faith, any appropriatelyhumble and orthodox approach to Christ and theTrinity immediately confesses the insufficiency of ourconcepts for explaining the life of God. Heresy, incontrast, can often be distinguished by its pride and self-satisfaction. Heresies such as Arianiam (denying Christ’sdivinity) or Docetism (Christ merely seemed to behuman) are arrogant attempts to reduce the faith to thesimpler categories we prefer.

One real giftHeresy is made known when it is condemned by a

council, historically a great gathering of bishops. Few ofthe documents created by the heretics of the earlyChurch have survived their condemnation by the

councils of the Church. Much of what we know aboutthe ancient heresies comes from the writings of theopponents of heresy, the bishops and theologians whoare the heroes of the orthodox faith.

St. Augustine’s writings reveal Pelagianism; Ireneus’sbook Against the Heretics shows us what certain Gnosticsbelieved; Athanasius’s answering of his arguments showsus the errors of Arius. The only real gift of heresy is itsstimulation of a renewed account of the Church’sauthentic faith.

Lessons from historyBetween the classical period of Christian theology

and our day stands the Reformation, and with it areminder that the boundaries of heresy are often in play.During that great struggle, reformers charged Catholictraditionalists with the Pelagian heresy of works-righteousness. Catholic traditionalists equated anynumber of reformed positions with heresy, particularlyProtestant eucharistic theology. The danger of makingthe charge of heresy too frequently and too lightly isreal; once the word is spoken, conversation and charityare likely near their end. Most of the time, heresypertains to the central affirmations of the faith found inthe creeds.

In our own day . . . In our own day, the charge of heresy is infrequently

made in mainline circles. The difficulties that currentlyoccupy the attention of the Anglican Communion areseen by some as matters of ethical and moraldiscernment, well-apart from the core doctrines of thefaith. Others are sure that our debates are rooted indivergent narratives of what the Church stands for at itsmost basic level. Both groups should be aware of thefaithful relationship between orthodoxy ("right belief")and orthopraxis ("right practice"). Believing rightlyshould shape our lives toward the purposes of theKingdom of God. A people who claim that Jesus Christbrought our humanity into communion with the divineshould also be a people who do the work Christ gave usto do, feeding the hungry, tending the sick, and makingpeace at our own expense.

Seeking the center of faithYou are not likely to be charged with heresy in your

congregation; there is a great rule of charity in theAnglican tradition. Though some of our individualdoubts about aspects of the faith are heretical, charitablepractice permits much diversity of belief for individualsin our Church.


A HERESY SAMPLER

Adoptionism is the belief that Jesus was not really God but a man to whom special gracesand powers were given and who was “adopted” by God as God’s only son.

Apollinarianism, named for Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea in Syria , ca. 361, emphasized thedivinity of Christ at the expense of his full humanity, teaching that Christ had a human bodybut not a rational, human mind. The mind of Christ was wholly divine.

Arianism, named after Arius (ca. 250–ca. 336), a priest from Alexandria, was the principalheresy that denied the full divinity of Christ. Arius taught that the Father and the Son did notexist together eternally and that the Son was a divine being created by the Father.

Docetism put forth the belief that Jesus was not a real human being and that his physicalbody was an illusion, as were his earthly suffering and death. The Docetic Jesus was pure spirit.The term Doceticism is derived from the Greek, “to seem.”

Nestorianism, identified (although probably erroneously) with Nestorius, fifth-centurypatriarch of Antioch, is the doctrine that Jesus Christ had two separate natures—one human,the other divine

Pelagianism held that human beings, through right action, could obtain salvation, apart fromdivine grace. This heresy is named for Pelagius, a late-fourth- and early-fifth-century teacherabout whom little is known.

By Nicholas M. Beasley

Swimming outside the MAINSTREAM

What HERESY’s all about


7


“When Jesus became God”—or “When Godbecame Jesus”—or “When the Father and the Sonmade the Holy Spirit.” These are heresies. Each oneof them has spent some time in the sun. The first isAdoptionism. The second is Arianism. (See “A heresysampler” on page 6.) The third is simply foolishness,although I heard it first in a Trinity Sunday sermonby a venerable priest many years ago. I also heardthe lay person in the pew behind me mutter,“Heresy.” Unfortunately the priest could not hearwhat I heard, but I took heart in knowing that sometimes laityknow more theology than priests do. None of these three ideas isunknown in Christian history nor in popular theology.

UnitariansWe are all unitarians in the sense that it is impossible to think or talk about the

Trinity except in a very abstract way. Someone said that Catholics are unitarians of thefirst person; Protestants of the second person, and Pentecostals of the third person. Ithink that the Trinity is the Church’s considered way of dealing with our experienceof Jesus. Were it not for him, the Church would never have needed to alter the radicalmonotheism we inherited from Judaism. The disciples were convinced, even to thepoint of martyrdom, that their companion, friend, and teacher, whom they dared tocall the Messiah, had conquered death, and that he was a continuing presence in thelife of the Church.

John and the risen presence of ChristThe Gospel of John, my own favorite certainly, differs from the Synoptic Gospels,

Matthew, Mark, and Luke. No Gospel is simply biography. Each Gospel was writtenand read through the lens of the resurrection and the gift of the Spirit. But John isessentially christological—a profound meditation on the person and nature of Christ,written late enough, I think, to reflect the experience not just of the first disciples, butalso of a second generation of Christians whose whole experience of Christ was hisrisen presence. Jesus is the light of the world, the way and the truth and the life, theresurrection, the alpha and the omega, because those are the ways in which generationafter generation of Christians have encountered him.

The disciples remembered how very human their friend was. They were with himwhen he ate and when he slept, when he washed and when he worried, when helaughed and when he cried. And yet, they also experienced him as perfectlytransparent to God’s love and obedient to God’s purpose.

What we call Christology, then, is simply the expression of our corporate andcontinuing experience of Jesus. It is, of course, the Holy Spirit who now looks likeJesus and talks like Jesus and is the means of his presence as he promised.

Tip of the icebergThe Trinity is like the tip of an iceberg. It is as much of God as we can see.

There must be a great deal more. Nothing in orthodox theology says what we see is the whole of God, but that what we see is an accurate picture of God. We will never discover that God is four persons or two persons. But we may experience more deeply

and more fully the mystery and the wonder of Godas the Holy Spirit continues to work within the

Church. I do not think the Church fathers meantthat God is three separate personalities. Nor did they

mean that God is one personality playing three differentroles or acting three different parts. Nor do they mean

that God was creator in the Hebrew Bible andredeemer in the Christian gospel and Holy Spirit inthe life of the Church. We have no way to speakabout three-ness and one-ness in the same

sentence. We do know that the face of God toward us is alwaysJesus. The Holy Spirit witnesses only to him.

In the beginning . . .John the Evangelist says that there was never a time when the Trinity was not

the Trinity. The birth narratives in Matthew and Luke attempt in story form todescribe the connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the eternal God. He is notGod pretending to be a man. And, he is not a man pretending to be God. The firstwould be a stage play. The second is the original sin.

The use of the terms Father and Son in the Trinity does not imply eithersubordination or superiority. To speak of God as creator, redeemer, and sustainer istrue, but those are abstract words. I do not speak of my parents as creator or redeemeror sustainer although they played all those roles in my life. I call them mother andfather because I was not manufactured, but conceived in love and rescued more thanonce in love, and sustained always in love.

It’s about loveThe Trinity functions in love. Jesus Christ is begotten not made—that is, the

Jesus we know is the product of love between the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.That seems crude only to people who would like to keep their religion pure andspiritual and other and never let it be earthy and human and sacramental and real.Genesis says that God made humanity in God’s image and likeness. We are one andwe are many. Any group larger than one or smaller than the whole of humanity is notGod’s image or intention. God is three distinct persons and yet one, and we areTrinity, distinct persons and yet one humanity.

The Rev. Thomas C. Davis is a retired priest of the diocese.

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By Thomas C. Davis

The tip of the iceberg . . .Reflections on the Trinity Reflections on the Trinity


9


Other articles in this issue of Crosswalk probe the history of the doctrinesthat evolved into the clauses of the Nicene Creed that is familiar to us.Extrapolating meaning from those clauses is animportant theological exercise that points us towardthe basic content of Christian faith. Together, thoseclauses make up the objective part of the creed. Thatis, they constitute the object of our belief.Significantly, the creed does not go too far inparsing the meaning of its own affirmations. Rather,it establishes an extraordinarily wide boundary thatdefines the theological territory Christians in everyage are invited to explore.

“We believe . . .”But in addition to its objective side, the creed

also incorporates an essential subjective side. TheNicene Creed is not simply a series of statementsabout the Godhead, the Church, and Christiandestiny. It also implies a community that affirmsthose statements. What exactly are we doing whenwe say, “We believe”?

The phrase “We believe” begins each of the mainclauses of the Nicene Creed. We believe in God. Webelieve in Jesus Christ. We believe in the HolySpirit. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic

church. Many assume the meaning of that phrase is self-evident. But, in fact,those two powerful words warrant careful examination. Who are “We”? And

what are the implications of believing in something orsomeone? The meaning seems clear enough on thesurface. Yet what most 21st-century Westerners mean by“believing” very likely is quite different from whatpeople 1,600 or even 500 years ago meant by it.

“We,” not “I”Why do we say, “We believe” instead of “I believe”? Why

is the Nicene Creed framed in the first person plural, ratherthan the first person singular, as is the Apostles’ Creed, forexample? The Nicene Creed did not emerge like the othercreeds before it. Many other, localized baptismal creedspredated the Nicene Creed. Each of these was used in thecontext of an individual’s initiation into the Church throughthe sacrament of baptism. The bishop would ask theindividual, “Do you believe in God?” And he/she wouldanswer, “I believe in God.” In like fashion, he would askabout Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and the candidatewould respond. It was out of that baptismal context that thefirst creeds naturally evolved using the first person singular.The Apostles' Creed, which is the heart of the baptismalcovenant in our Book of Common Prayer, appropriately takesthat same form. It is directed to the individual and his or herrelationship to God and the Church.

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What does it mean to say, “ WE BELIEVE” ?

By John S. Nieman

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Love LetterBy Madeleine L'Engle

I hate you, God.Love, Madeleine.

I write my message on waterand at bedtime I tiptoe upstairsand let it flow under your door.

When I am angry with youI know that you are thereeven if you do not answer my knockeven when your butler opens the door an inchand flaps his thousand wings in annoyanceat such untoward interruptionand says that the master is not at home.

I love you, Madeleine.Hate, God.

(This is how I treat my friends, he said to one great saint.No wonder you have so few of them, Lord, she replied.)

I cannot turn the other cheekIt takes all the strength I haveTo keep my fist from hitting backthe soldiers shot the babythe little boys trample the old womanthe gutters are filled with groanswhile pleasure seekers knock each other downin order to get their tickets stamped first.

I'm turning in my ticketand my letter of introduction.You're supposed to do the knocking. Why do you

burst my heart?

How can I write youto tell you that I'm angrywhen I've been given the wrong addressand I don't even know your real name?

I take hammer and nailsand tack my message on two crossed pieces of wood:

Dear Godis it too much to ask youto bother to be?Just show me your hindquartersand let me hear you roar.

Love,Madeleine.

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By Peter TrenholmMy first serious encounter

with the Nicene Creed wasprobably like yours: at aboutage eleven, I was required tomemorize it in order to “passConfirmation.” This crucialstep of my Pilgrim’s Progressalso necessitated mylearning—by rote—the TenCommandments (the longerversion); the 23rd Psalm (Iprefer to this day the KingJames’s version—and stillwonder why my dinnerwould be served in thepresence of my enemies); theGeneral Thanksgiving; andthe Prayer for All Sorts andConditions of Men. Curiously not mandated was the Apostles’ Creed, apparently because, those beingthe days of once-a-month-communion, it was said (read) three out of every four weeks and thereforeassumed to be as familiar as the Lord’s Prayer, which also escaped mandatory, qualifying recitation.

Three things mystifiyingSeveral things about the usage of the Nicene Creed have long mystified me. First, why even cradle

Episcopalians do not seem to grasp fully that it is a creed and therefore contains the fundamental corebeliefs of the religion many of whose other particulars they so vehemently defend or vigorouslyproselytize.

Second, why, as a creed, it is placed—as if we are unsure of its value—in an odd corner of theeucharistic rites, an afterthought to the sermon or a warm-up for the Prayers of the People. I would thinkit should follow the Gospel, the way it once did, or else be at the beginning of the service—or at the end,a proclamation that stands alone. And third, why it is never—or very rarely—the subject of a grandsermon or even a lowly homily. Why is it never seen as a useful subject of discussion at some other forumwithin a congregation’s numerous occasions for dialogue: study groups, Sunday school instruction, orLenten study. It isn’t as if there is nothing in the creeds worth talking about on, say, the Fifth Sunday inPentecost, or the Third Sunday in Advent. I’d bet that in a pool of ten random Episcopalians (is thereanother kind?), six could recite the Apostles’ Creed letter perfect (if you gave then an initial hint),whereas only two could stumble through the “main event.”

Creedal ironiesI suppose here is as good a spot as any to remark, as many have before me, on the curious, ironic fact

that both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds make an odd point of including specific reference to PontiusPilate, a petty Roman puppet at best, and a somewhat pathetic historic icon of Roman law and power.Presumably this insignificant footnote to history is there to challenge doubters of the reality of thepassion and its aftermath.

Nor even is Pilate the end of the Nicene Creed’s ironies. There are, in fact, actually two Christiancreeds with the Nicene title, one issued by the Council of Nicaea in 325 and a longer formula (in regularuse in our Eucharist—and also known as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed). Historically “our”creed has been presumed as having been written by the Council of Constantinople in 381, althoughscholarship has questioned this origin. But both versions were compiled with the same intent, and thefact that the one we use accomplishes that intent in 33 lines and 266 words makes it a masterpiece ofjudicious prose and literary economy—a statement obviously meant to be said—probably often,presumably loudly.

—continued on page 13

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Who: Church of the Good Shepherd, located at 1512 Blanding Street, Columbia,S.C. Phone: 803.779.2960. Web site: www.goodshepherdcolumbia.org/. Rector: TheRev. Dr. James F. Lyon IV. Average Sunday attendance: 175.

When: In June 1900 the Rev. William Postell Witsell accepted the call to becomerector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, in Columbia, after having served as thefirst resident rector of the Church of the Resurrection, Greenwood. He devoted hisgreat energies to the building of the new church building at 1512 Blanding Street.

The church was built based on plans by architect J. Hagood Sams with theassistance of a building committee. The cornerstone was laid by Bishop Ellison Caperson St. Andrew’s Day, November 30, 1900. After almost a year of intensive work, theChurch of the Good Shepherd was completed.

The structure of the building is cruciform, which is the oldest form of Episcopalianarchitecture in South Carolina. The modified Gothic design is characterized by rowsof Gothic windows along the nave with a lofty spire that reaches heavenward. Broadsteps lead to the narthex and transept doors, with turrets gracing the body of thechurch.

Inside, turn-of-the-century influence can be seen in the open-beam ceiling. Thelong center aisle, representing the straight and narrow path of the Christian, leads toan impressive altar made of Italian marble. The original altar was bequeathed to St.Mary’s Church on St. Andrews Road, in Columbia, for a memorial chapel. The greatstained-glass window above the altar, given in 1893 as a memorial, was moved fromthe original church building, on Barnwell Street, into this new building.

How: As do all congregations of Upper South Carolina, Good Shepherd follows therubric found on page 13 of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer that says, “The HolyEucharist [is] the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s day and other majorFeasts.” In observing this rubric, our principal service on these occasions is a SolemnMass, which means that the priest who is the celebrant is attended by a subdeacon anda server. The service is complemented by liturgical music, incense, sacred bells, andcongregational hymns. This ceremonial practice is based on the centuries-old customsof the Church. Baptized Christians who believe in the Real Presence of Christ in theBlessed Sacrament are invited to receive Holy Communion.

Why: Good Shepherd was originally formed to serve a community comprisedmainly of railroad employees of limited resources—machinists, mechanics, and otherworkeers—who were ready to receive the message of the gospel and respond to it.From those early beginnings, Good Shepherd developed a reputation for outstandingpastoral care to all citizens of Columbia under the leadership of the Rev. Lewis N.Tailor, who served as rector from 1925 until his death in 1947.

With the principles of serving people of modest means and providing exceptionalpastoral care, the parish made a natural transition into the Anglo Catholic tradition ofthe Anglican Communion. The Anglo Catholic tradition, reinvigorated by theOxford Movement in England (1833–1845), asserted that the catholic Church—Roman, Orthodox, and Anglican— comprised the Body of Christ, and as the Bodyof Christ, is the vessel through which the Lord’s sacraments are administered.

Good Shepherd, then, seeks to practice in this tradition by maintaining a balancebetween orthodox catholic worship and pastoral outreach to its parishioners and thecommunity—all in an effort to fulfill the Great Commandment to love God with allour hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We pursue these principles in many ways. We support Harvest Hope Food Bankin Columbia, supplying funds and food on a regular basis. Our rector, with our lay

people, has been a prominent leader of diocesan Home Works trips, supporting anecumenical ministry devoted to repairing homes of the elderly and disadvantaged(www.homeworks-sc.org/).Trips have ranged as far away as Boone, N.C., to JohnsIsland, S.C.

Good Shepherd has also provided leadership in pursuing ecumenical relations,between the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church by participating withSt. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic churches, both in Columbia, over the yearsin a variety of services. These ecumenical services include Ash Wednesday, held someyears at St. Peter’s, and some years at Good Shepherd. Together we have prayed theLiving Rosary at Good Shepherd and at St. Joseph’s. The Benediction of the blessedSacrament has been observed several times at Good Shepherd as an ecumenical servicewith our bishop, The Rt. Rev. Dorsey F. Henderson, Jr., presiding, and the RomanCatholic bishop, The Most Rev. Robert J. Baker, bishop of the Diocese of Charleston,preaching.

This profile is a collaborative effort. Ms. Christi Stewart, former Crosswalk intern,brought it all together. Portions of the profile are taken from The Episcopal Church ofThe Good Shepherd, by Agnes Lee Clawson (and are used with permission); the “How”section was written by the Rev. Dr. James F. Lyon IV for the Good Shepherd Mass Ordo(and is used with permission); all other portions are by Good Shepherd parishioner Mr.Robert C. Clawson.

Parish profile BODY P • A • R • T • S

Church of the Good Shepherd, Columbia

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“We believe” —ÅçåíáåìÉÇ= Ñêçã= é~ÖÉ= V

The faith of the ChurchBut the Nicene Creed emerged out of a very different context and for a very

different purpose. The Nicene Creed was never intended to be a baptismal creed. Itwas intended from the beginning to be a corporate expression of the faith of the wholeChurch. The Council of Nicaea represents the first attempt to offer a creed that wouldsummarize the faith for the entire Church, not simply for the church in a givenlocation. It was an attempt to represent the growing drive toward catholicity in creedalform. The creed produced at the Council of Nicaea—and subsequently revised atfuture councils—represented the convictionthat the common acceptance of a creedalformula would lead to further ecclesiasticalunity, and help solidify political unity.Specifically, its theological understanding ofthe relationship between the Father and theSon was presented as an agreed upon statement—albeit fragile!—of faith for the entire catholicChurch.

Wider communityIt is that Church, the Body of Christ, that

worships together. Christianity is not a religionof individuals. It is a religion of a communitythat extends far and wide. To be a Christian isto be part of that communion that stretchesaround the globe, as well as back and forwardthrough time. The creed's first word expressesthe radically countercultural conviction that itis not possible to live fully as a Christian apartfrom the Christian community.

There are very rare instances of Christianswho have lived in utter solitude, such as someof the desert fathers and mothers, who livedalone in caves. But even they clearlyunderstood their extreme solitude as a gift tothe wider community. Medieval anchorites,such as Julian of Norwich who lived alone in acell, also had a very important connection tothe wider Christian community. Julian had twowindows, one opening to the world throughwhich she was able to converse with others, andone opening to the church to which her cellwas attached and through which she couldpartake of the sacraments.

The context of our call as Christians clearly is the Christian community, theChurch. Although we are clearly called to exercise our ministry in the world, thatministry is always the ministry of the Church.

"Believe"The "We" that begins the creed expresses the fundamental conviction that the

Christian faith is not the sum total of the religious convictions of individuals. TheChristian faith is rooted in the Body of Christ as a whole of which each one of us asan individual is a member. The Christian faith is, in that sense, catholic.

That understanding forms a backdrop for approaching the meaning of the wordbelieve. Many contemporary people have an individualized notion of what it means tobelieve something, a notion that is intimately connected with an evolving sense of theautonomy of the individual rooted in the Renaissance and blossoming in theEnlightenment. To believe something, for most of us, is to give our intellectual assentto it. To believe a statement about something is to accept that the statement accuratelyreflects that which is, in fact, the case. "I believe that the earth is round" is a statementthat essentially means that, although I have not actually seen for myself the roundness

of the earth (except in photographs taken from outer space), I accept that the earth isindeed round, and will use that acceptance to construct further knowledge about theworld around me. It is a statement about the world that my mind accepts as factuallytrue.

"Credo"That use of the word believe is very different from the meaning of the word in the

creed. The original Greek word that begins the creed, pisteuomen, essentially means"we entrust or to commit ourselves to." It was translated accurately into Latin as credo,which is a compound word that means to put one's heart to. The Nicene Creed, bothin its original Greek form and its early Latin form, was a statement about

commitment, about where we put our ultimate trust. In anutshell, it said that we put our trust in the Triune God. Itwas not concerned with addressing intellectual uncertainty,which is a thoroughly modern problem. It was, rather, astatement indicating full allegiance, a commitment of one'sentire being: heart, mind, body, and soul.

"Believe" / "belove"When the English word believe was used in translation of

the creed in the Middle Ages, it was just the right word. Theword believe has a close etymological relationship to theword belove. It meant "to hold dear" or "to treat asbeloved." The object of the verb was almost always a person.To believe a person was to orient oneself toward him or herwith an attitude of affection, trust, and endearment. Tobelieve someone was to treat him or her as beloved.

A helpful exercise to get a sense of the power of thismeaning is to say the creed like this: "We love God, theFather, the Almighty. We hold Jesus Christ dear. We trustthe Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life." That likelyevokes a very different sensibility in most of us than what weare accustomed to when we say the creed. To begin the creedwith the words We believe is to enter more into a statementof devotion toward and trust in the Triune God than intointellectual declaration about divine facts. That is not to saythat the creed does not represent deep intellectual content.Any reflection on the history of the development of thecreed shows that intellectual debate about the fundamentalcontent of the creed was extraordinarily intense. But ourearly Church ancestors who hashed out the precise words ofthe creed inhabited a world in which the heart and mindlived in much closer relationship than they do in our post-Enlightenment world.

"Heart" / "mind"Wilfred Cantwell Smith pinpoints the difference beautifully. To say "we believe"

1600 years ago meant, "given the reality of God as a fact of the universe, we herebyproclaim that we align our life accordingly, pledging our love and loyalty." Today,many who say the creed mean something like this: "given the uncertainty of God as afact of modern life, we report that the idea of God is part of the furniture of theuniverse." The first is a pledge of heartfelt allegiance to the God proclaimed by theChurch in the context of a general acceptance of the reality of many gods. The secondis an act of the mind in the context of a general uncertainty about the reality of anygod. (See chapter 6, "The English Word 'Believe'" in Smith’s Faith and Belief [1979].)

St. Anselm captured well the relationship between the heart and mind when hedefined theology as faith seeking understanding. The idea is that of an established,committed relationship—in this case, between ourselves and God—in which we seekto grow in understanding. The creed, especially in its historic context in the liturgy, isa testament to that kind of devotion and eagerness to grow in the knowledge and loveof the Lord.

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13


My life with the creed—ÅçåíáåìÉÇ Ñêçã é~ÖÉ NM

The covenant averredThe Nicene Creed is, simultaneously, a stark

rejection of early and prolific heresies, an affirmation ofthe Church’s true faith, a crisp biography of Christ’s lifeand achievements, and a powerful endorsement—thekind that brooks no dissent—of the doctrines of theChurch. They’re all there: Incarnation, Resurrection,Atonement, Ascension, and the Trinity. Overall, bycommitting us to three separate but interconnected “Webelieves” in God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—wethus aver our Baptismal Covenant every Sunday.

A new theologyOriginally written as a refutation of those tenets that

the Church could not tolerate in its early years if it wasto survive as a distinct, focused, new church and clearlyunderstood to be a new and necessary theology, theNicene Creed was written to include unmistakablereferences to the composers’ repudiation of the prevalentheresy of Arianism by using the word homoousios, whichdefined the relationship between the Father and the Sonwithin the Godhead, which we believe, still, as the Son’sbeing “eternally begotten of the Father . . . begotten, notmade, of one Being with the Father.”

Appended originally were four anathemas against theArians, which, though once considered an integral partof the text, have since been blessedly removed. (Theoriginal creed of 325 is found on page 3 of this issue ofCrosswalk.) There follows a short biography of Christ,beginning with the Incarnation and concluding with thecertainty of the Second Coming.

Our life, our hopeThe last third of the creed concerns the Holy Spirit

as “Lord” and “giver of life” and our acknowledgment ofthat Spirit as being contained in the Trinity. We alsorecommit ourselves to adherence to the Church and itssacred process of apostolic succession, by which bishopsare regarded as succeeding the apostles through theircommissions, and their having the same functions as theapostles. (Does this mean that bishops are born, notmade?)

We also reaffirm our faith that our life is in andthrough Christ and our hope in the resurrection as theacceptance into eternal joy—all this in 33 lines. TheNicene Creed eclipses all the other great documents anddeclarations of history in its absolutism, its literaryrefinement, and its power to demand and securecommitment.

Developing personal faithRead aloud or silently every day, the Nicene Creed

becomes a proxy for the development of personalfaith—in several ways. When we are small, newChristians, we hear about God and creation, and thestories of the Garden of Eden and Noah, and Joseph andhis coat leave us scared but curious. Later, we hear theJesus part, and if his unique connection to God isbewildering (as it may be for the rest of our lives), he isstill a very human person in his miracles, parables,teachings, and fondness for strange associates. (I’llconfess I am puzzled by his odd way of choosing hisfriends.)

It is perhaps not until later in life that we fullyencounter the Holy Spirit, whom time and events can

make especially significant and immediate, for it is tothe Spirit we most often pray for solace, mitigation,healing, cure . . . or release.

Encapsulating historyThe Nicene Creed is also an encapsulated history of

the Church itself, with its references to the rejection ofearly dissent and its overall sense of a gradual, yetdeliberate, codified emergence of faith and doctrine overcenturies of worship and canonical usage, adaptation,and change.

And if you have an enquiring mind, you are, onoccasion, left to wonder what, exactly, is meant by “trueGod from true God”; or to whom we are referring whenwe read “Through him all things were made.” We hadbeen talking homoousios, but are now on the cusp of theIncarnation.

Moving the ribbonFinally, I find that read quietly and alone—read as

straightforward prose, as a decree, the Nicene Creed hasan altogether different effect on my private worship andwhere I go from there. Some phrase will send mesearching through my Book of Common Prayer for apassage of the Psalter, or a collect that seems, thatinstant, to be particularly apt or right for the Churchseason, or even my mood.

I’ve moved by ribbon from the Great Litany to theNicene Creed, Holy Eucharist I.

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Heresy —ÅçåíáåìÉÇ Ñêçã é~ÖÉ S

Those of us who have taken ordination vows do have anintense responsibility to teach and share the catholic andorthodox faith. Heresy may be inadvertent. Preaching onthe humanity of Christ may easily lose sight of hisdivinity and temporarily err into Arianism. Trinitarianprayer and contemplation may so celebrate the diversityinherent in the life of God that we border on tri-theism.

We will be forgiven when our best efforts go slightlyastray if we are always seeking the center of the faith. Forbelievers, doubts about the faith are subjects for prayer,study, and spiritual conversation. Moments of unbeliefmay well be actions of the Holy Spirit, as God invites usthrough them away from misunderstanding and towardthe deep current of the faith.

Slipping into the currentIn our postmodern age, many voices tell us that there

is no truth in the universe, only self-interesteddescriptions of reality. Christians simply cannot believethat. There is truth in the universe, truth that makes usfree. We need only to slip into the swift, yet gentle,current of the Church's faith and practice, letting Godteach us all that we need to know.

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Shaping of the creeds —ÅçåíáåìÉÇ Ñêçã é~ÖÉ R

The debates that led to and emerged from Nicaea often seemfar removed from the 21st century, matters best left to agedtheologians or dusty books in libraries. But it was not so in thefourth century. Debates over Arianism raged in the Church andat the imperial court. The fate of the Nicene compromise wasvery much in jeopardy throughout the fourth century. Arius wascondemned and exiled, but because of changing fortunes atcourt, he was allowed to return to Alexandria about 334.Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria and great defender of Niceneorthodoxy, was sent into exile at least three times.

Learning from the pastBut this was not a debate only for bishops, theologians, and

emperors. It raged even in the streets of Constantinople. Gregoryof Nyssa, one of the leading defenders of Nicene Christology inthe late fourth century wrote "If in this city you ask anyone forchange, he will discuss with you whether the Son is begotten orunbegotten. If you ask about the quality of bread, you will receivethe answer that 'the Father is greater, the Son is less.' If you askthe bath attendant to draw you a bath, you will be told that 'therewas nothing before the Son was created.'" When our Church isin the midst of sharp conflict over doctrine and practice, we dowell to remember that the great confessions and definitions ofour faith were themselves the products of bitter conflict.

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Catholic creeds —ÅçåíáåìÉÇ Ñêçã é~ÖÉ P

The Chalcedonian Creed (451 A.D.) wasproduced in Chalcedon, in Asia Minor,across the Bosporus from the great city ofByzantium. This creed affirmed theNicene-Constantinople Creed as asufficient statement of the orthodoxteaching of the Christian Church andconfirmed Mary, the mother of Jesus, withtitle "God-bearer."

Syllabi for reflectionThe creeds render an outline, a reminder, a

formula for studying the full Christian story,as that story deals with creation, the work ofthe patriarchs and prophets, the advent of theChrist, and a vision of hope. They challengethe Church to review the power and integrity(truth) of the scriptures, and they serve assyllabi for reflection on the issues of earlyChristian thought and today's alternate storiesof reality, human values, and creation'spurpose.

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Creeds - we believe7.qxp:CrosswalkEaster04q5 3/26/08 1:38 PM Page 14

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The word ordinary also comes from Latin, ordinarius,meaning an overseer who keeps order. The term refersto the one who has jurisdiction or authority. In the caseof a bishop, the ordinary is the one who has theauthority to ordain. So the ordinary is the diocesanbishop, and the canon to the ordinary is the personwhose ministry is directly answerable to the bishop andwho usually functions as a kind of chief of staff orbishop’s executive.

CW: What are your main responsibilities as canon to theordinary in Upper SC?MB: Bishop Henderson has given me three basicresponsibilities to exercise on his behalf. One is that Iam to oversee the deployment of clergy in the diocese.Right now, there are eight congregations in variousstages of searching for clergy leadership. That’s about 12percent of the congregations in the diocese that havesignificant deployment needs. A second responsibilitypertains to congregational development, everythingfrom providing guidelines and resources for healthyestablished churches to assisting in the fruitfulestablishment of new congregations. And the thirdresponsibility I have is, as the bishop so euphemisticallyphrases it, “troubleshooting.”

In all these capacities and responsibilities, my job isto help the bishop succeed in his ministry among us. Ifind this both exciting and a humbling privilege.

CW: With Bishop Henderson approaching mandatoryretirement in 2011, what do you see as the primary goalsof your ministry as his canon to the ordinary?MB: Of all the ministries my position as canon to theordinary touches, the fact that Bishop Henderson mustretire within three years (according to the canons of theChurch) is the lynchpin. I cannot tell you howrespectful I am of the bishop’s willingness to address theclose of his episcopacy among us. It takes courage andmaturity to take the lead in moving toward one’sending. His retirement is, in reality, a death— for himand for the diocese; and I admire his forthrightness incalling us constructively and faithfully to this historicalmoment.

More to the point, I believe that I can be helpful tothe bishop in providing him with some perspective, ashe does the hard personal work of leading us to thattime when he will depart Upper South Carolina; and Ithink that I can also be helpful to the diocese as a wholein connecting our common life and ministry with hisown trajectory. Over the last two years (when I wasserving as an officer of the Diocesan Executive Council)and in these initial months as a member of his staff, thebishop and I have spent a good amount of time togetherfocusing on the very real opportunity his retirementoffers us all. I say this because times of transition are theonly times when real, lasting change can beimplemented. Even though transition time makes mostof us a bit crazy, I personally want these last laps of hisepiscopal race to lead to a fruitful finish—for him andfor the diocese. And Bishop Henderson has been veryclear about the characteristics by which he wishes hisepiscopacy to finish. He wants to hand off to his

successor the healthiest diocese possible! And I want todo everything I can to assist him in that hope andprayer.

CW: After years of parish ministry, what prompted you toaccept the call to this new ministry?MB: The shortest response to this question is that it ishard for me to decline my bishop’s request. Having saidthis, it took me a while to accept the bishop’s offer. After27 years in parish ministry (preceded by five years inschool ministry), I felt comfortable in that arena, and Idearly loved St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, Columbia, theparish I was serving at the time of his call. Truth to tell,I was also a bit afraid to make the change, and it wasacknowledging that fear that ultimately pushed me tosay yes. It seemed to indicate that I needed to grow inthis direction. Now I can say that I feel that I am in theright place at the right time. I am grateful for theopportunity.

CW: Anything else you’d like us Upper South Caroliniansto know?MB: Without sounding self-serving because I am now amember of the bishop’s staff, most of us in thecongregations don’t realize how faithful and competentthe bishop’s staff is. One of the reasons for this is thatmy colleagues stay below the radar because what theydo—and do so well and often under great pressure—isdone for service and not recognition. I have discoveredthis personally from the “inside.” Confronting the steepand at times daunting learning curve I continue to facein my position, my staff colleagues have been sopersonally gracious and professionally supportive of meand what I need to do. And as I watch them do theirwork, the same grace and competence is what theyprovide for the members of the diocese. It is a goodteam.

Four ordained to the priesthood,February 2

On February 2, in a glorious celebration at TrinityCathedral, Columbia, Bishop Henderson ordainedMark Anthony Abdelnour, Alfredo Pedro González,Joseph Kershaw Smith, and Joseph Stewart Whitehurstto the sacred order of priests. The Very Rev. Donald W.Krickbaum, dean emeritus of Trinity Cathedral, Miami,preached.

The Rev. Messrs. Abdelnour, González, Smith, andWhitehurst are serving at St. Bartholomew’s, North

Augusta; St. Mary’s, Columbia; St. Matthew’s,Spartanburg; and St. Thaddeus, Aiken, respectively.

Two Upper SCyouth on nationalEYE design team

EYE—the triennial EpiscopalYouth Event—is scheduled forsummer 2008 in San Antonio,Texas, on the campus of TrinityUniversity. Two Upper SouthCarolinians are on the nationaldesign team and already hard atwork: Lisa Bailey, from TrinityCathedral, Columbia, and RyanBenitez from St. Bartholomew’s,North Augusta. Congratulationsto these great young people!

EYE was established by the 1982 GeneralConvention to be “a gathering of young people andtheir advocates from throughout the Episcopal Churchto inspire and empower youth as Christian apostles.EYE is designed to be an immersion experience in theBaptismal Covenant to extend the mission and ministryof the Church.”

Gravatt to break ground for newchapel, April 19

More than fouryears after the fire thatdestroyed CullumHall and the Chapelof Transfiguration,construction of a newchapel will begin thisspring, with agroundbreaking set for April 19th at 5 p.m. Everyone isinvited!

Gravatt’s board of directors has been working withLTC & Associates of Columbia to draw up plans for thechapel, which will seat 180 people. Recently PizzutiBuilders, who were responsible for the 2007 remodelingof Cole Lodge and addition of bathrooms to StewartHall, were signed to build the chapel.

The original chapel was completed in 1989 with agenerous gift from the Bailey Dixon family to honor hisfriends at All Saints’, Clinton: John Glover, ClydeIreland, and Michael Turner. The new chapel will honorthese three individuals as well as Bailey Dixon. Twomajor gifts have already been received to fund therebuilding of the chapel. The diocesan ECW hasgraciously made the chapel one of their mission projectsfor the year.

While money is in hand for the building itself,additional gifts are being sought for chapel-relatedprojects (furnishings, landscaping, and so on). If youwould like to make a gift toward the Chapel Fund,please send your check payable to the Bishop GravattCenter, Attn: Chapel Fund, 1006 Camp Gravatt Road,Aiken, SC 29805, or contact Lauri Yeargin at803.648.1817 for more information.

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15


AArroouunndd tthhee DDiioocceessee Upper SC to bring Cursillo toCentral EcuadorBy Chip Smith

Upper South Carolina's Cursillo community has beengiven approval to export Cursillo to the Diocese ofCentral Ecuador. This happy circumstance has comeabout as a result of a September 2007 trip to Quito,Ecuador, which was designed to gather information andexpand our relationship with Central Ecuador.

Thanks to a connection with diocesan missionaryCameron Graham and her husband Roberto Vivanco,Happening had already been exported to Quito, withHappening Uno having taken place during the summerof 2007. Because of the extraordinary spiritual impact of

Happening Uno, the Cursillistas who traveled to Quitoin September discussed with Bishop Henderson thepossibility of exporting Cursillo to Ecuador and soon hadreceived permissionfrom Bishop Hendersonand Central Ecuador'sBishop WilfridoRamos-Orench, as wellas the enthusiasticapproval of theNational EpiscopalCursillo Committee.

Cursillo has nowbegun work toward thegoal of having aS p a n i s h - s p e a k i n g Cursillo weekend inMarch 2009 at theBishop Gravatt Center.The weekend willinclude candidates fromour diocese and 10 to12 candidates fromQuito. Once theweekend is over theEcuadorian Cursillistaswill start planning theirown Cursillo weekendin Quito.

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Church of the Advent celebratesthe spirituality of artBy Jane Sexton Long

Art, music, and spirituality joined together for aspectacular event at the Church of the Advent inSpartanburg in January. On January 11 an enthusiasticcrowd attended a performance by the Davidson College'ssymphony orchestra and its 18-member jazz ensemble.Workshops exploring different aspects of spiritualreflection were featured on January 12.

Among the presenters was retired Advent rector theRev. Dr. Clay Turner, who is a potter. The Rev. Dr.William Greeley, rector of the Advent, discussed thehistory of chanting and how it is used in our liturgy. Ms.Sue Zoole, well-known regional writer of icons, createdsacred icons on tin; Dr. Brennan Szafron, director ofmusic at the Advent, explored the spirituality of imagesin modern hymns. Ms. Carolyn Roberts, Advent

member and retired music teacher, gave a workshop onshape notes and folk music. The Rev. Roy W. Cole,assistant rector at the Advent, explored spiritualitythrough the medium of watercolor.

The Rev. Michael Sullivan, formerly canon formission and outreach at Trinity Cathedral and nowrector of St. John's, Lynchburg, Virginia, was bothkeynote speaker and presenter. Sullivan is the author ofWindows into the Soul: Art as Spiritual Expression.jëK=g~åÉ=pÉñíçå=içåÖ=áë=~=ãÉãÄÉê=çÑ=^ÇîÉåíI=pé~êí~åÄìêÖ

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Easter 2008

Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina1115 Marion StreetColumbia, South Carolina 29201

Nonprofit Org.U.S. PostagePAID

Permit No. 848Columbia, SC

Diocesancalendar

Bishop meets with deacons

York Place Founders’ Day

Happening reunion, St.. Luke’s, Newberry

Bishop Duvall’s visitation to Good Shepherd, ColumbiaBishop Henderson’s visitation to Christ Church, Greenville

Bishop Henderson’s visitation to Trinity Cathedral

Piedmont Convocation residency

Diocesan House closed

Bishop Henderson’s visitation to St. Philip’s, Greenville

Province IV Synod, Kanuga

Diocesan Executive Council, All Saints’, Clinton

Bishop Henderson’s visitation to All Saints’, Clinton

Cursillo #111

Reedy River residency

Bishop Henderson’s visitation to St. James’, Greenville

Provincial Youth Event, Bay St. Louis, MS

Bishop Henderson’s visitation to Christ Church, Lancaster

Deans/Lay Wardens to meet with Bishop Henderson

Diocesan House closed

Bishop’s Interview and Discernment committee

Episcopal Youth Event, San Antonio, TX

Bishop Henderson’s vistation to St. Barnabas’, JenkinsvillePiedmont Convocation Meeting, St. Margaret’s, Boiling Springs

Midlands Convocation meeting, TBA

Gravatt Convocation meeting, All Saints’, Beech Island

Catawba Convocation meeting, St. Matthias’, Rock HillReedy River Convocation meeting, Church of theRedeemer, Greenville

DEADLINE for next issue of Crosswalk: May 15.Send submissions to [email protected] photos to [email protected]

Send items for the calendar to [email protected]

CrosswalkThe official publication of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina

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29

May3

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21-23

26

July3

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8-13

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Aug3

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