Dear Saints,

As mentioned in our December edition, 2025 is the 1700th year since the construction of the Nicene Creed. This creed takes us straight back to the Bible and particularly to the beginning of the gospel of John, where the writer opens his witness or his proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ; he states that this man, Jesus, was none other than Godself; the Incarnate God; God in our midst in flesh and blood.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. … And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

So if the Bible is so clear, at least from John’s perspective, why was a creed like the one birthed in Nicea needed?

This is how our bishop, Robert Innes, answers that question in his January 2025 letter to the diocese:

“Over the course of the first four centuries of the Church’s life, ‘orthodox’ teachers of the faith were clear that since God created human life, only God could save human life, and that only by assuming human flesh himself could God save humanity. There was seen to be an intimate connection between the person and nature of Christ and the reality of human salvation.

There are, of course, many other ways of conceiving of who Jesus is. In the first centuries after Christ, it was common for people to think Jesus was a spiritual being who only appeared to be human, or that he was an angelic being of some kind. In our own time, it is common for people to see Jesus mainly as a great religious prophet or a moral exemplar.

It was to put proper limits around what could be understood as properly ‘Christian’ beliefs about Christ that ecumenical councils of bishops from across the Christian world – from India to Britain - meeting in Nicaea in 325 and again in Constantinople in 381, agreed on the text we call the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, or the Nicene Creed for short. The specific issue at stake was whether Christ existed eternally and is fully divine (as favoured by Alexander of Alexandria and Athanasius), or whether he was a created being (as favoured by Arius). The agreement on Athanasian orthodoxy has since been a defining feature of Christian belief, in both the Eastern and the Western Church, for the last 1700 years.”

As a way of engaging the Nicene Creed this year we as a parish have the following programme:

1. Our parish theme for the year 2025 is taken from the first words of the Nicene Creed “We believe”. This is followed by the reason why we believe, as per the famous phrase the French philosopher Descartes wrote when he worked in the Netherlands nearly 400 years ago: “I think, therefore I am”. Archbishop Tutu said “I am because you are”. Christ challenges us that we can only be when we love. So our theme is chosen: “We believe, therefore we love”.

2. We have broken the Nicene Creed up into 12 sections; one for each month of the year. We will focus on each of the 12 parts in the respective months. In January it was “We believe in one God”. In February it will be “The Father Almighty” and so on ….

3. We will follow the Diocesan study which centres around the Nicene Creed on Saturday mornings during Lent.

4. We will sing the Nicene Creed during our Sunday worship services. That is once we have familiarised

ourselves with ancient and modern musical settings of the Creed.

I hope our faith will be deepened and our ability to live lives worthy of repentance, as John the Baptist encourages us to do.
Please read the bishop’s January 2025 letter to the Diocese, which can be found on our Diocesan Website. If you want a hard copy, please let me or Simone know.
I pray God’s blessing on us this year and that we grow in number, faith and love.

Yours in Christ as always,

Revd Jacque