About the Nicene Creed…
24/07/05
The Nicene Creed we recite every Eucharist service is a Christian statement of faith accepted by the Anglican, Orthodox, Roman, and most major Protestant denominations. It gets its name from the First Council of Nicaea, held in 325, at which it was adopted. Often considered the only truly universally accepted Christian creed (as revised in 381 at the First Council of Constantinople), the Nicene Creed was the very last time both Catholic and Orthodox communions could bring themselves to agree upon a Credo.
The original purpose of developing a Christian creed was to establish and coalesce the base doctrine of Christian belief. The Nicene Creed is an embodiment, not a full definition, of what is required for personal doctrine and practice. It was hoped that by memorizing this simple summary of the faith, every Christian would gain the main tangible form and ideas of the Church, have a method to recognize deviations from orthodox Christianity and have a universally acknowledged public profession of the faith.
To the majority of modern Christian scholarship, the Nicene Creed is regarded as a prerequisite for Christian faith and that the Creed is quintessentially Christian. In this traditional belief, "all proper Christians affirm the Nicene Creed, and the Nicene Creed is affirmed by all proper Christians."
The original purpose of developing a Christian creed was to establish and coalesce the base doctrine of Christian belief. The Nicene Creed is an embodiment, not a full definition, of what is required for personal doctrine and practice. It was hoped that by memorizing this simple summary of the faith, every Christian would gain the main tangible form and ideas of the Church, have a method to recognize deviations from orthodox Christianity and have a universally acknowledged public profession of the faith.
To the majority of modern Christian scholarship, the Nicene Creed is regarded as a prerequisite for Christian faith and that the Creed is quintessentially Christian. In this traditional belief, "all proper Christians affirm the Nicene Creed, and the Nicene Creed is affirmed by all proper Christians."