The Holy Spirit in the Creed (Mid-week)

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

May 15, 2013

The Holy Spirit in the Creed

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, the celebration commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the early Church.  Everyone in the parish is encouraged to wear red to help us remember the “tongues of fire” that came upon the early Christians as the Spirit was poured out upon them. 

In the last few months you may have noticed in our Sunday bulletins that the words of the Rite 2 Nicene Creed are slightly different from those found in the Prayer Book.  For instance, “and was made man” now reads “and became truly human” as a better and more gender-inclusive rendering of the Greek καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα and Latin et homo factus est.  All these changes have been approved and recommended by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church and that is why we have adopted them in our order of service. 

The section about the Holy Spirit has the most of the authorized changes: 

“We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son] [[brackets added]],  who [[instead of ‘he’ later in the phrase]] with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified, who [[instead of ‘He’]] has spoken through the Prophets.” 

The shift from “he” to “who,” again, is more gender-inclusive and a better translation of the Greek and Latin.  The word for “Spirit” is masculine in Latin, but neuter in Greek and feminine in Hebrew.  The Creed in Greek and Latin does not repeat the pronoun. 

The addition of brackets around “and the Son” reflects a deep and divisive problem of long-standing in the Church. 

Our “Nicene” Creed comes from one affirmed by the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. and its revision by the Council of Constantinople in 381 C.E. The words for “and the Son” appear in neither of these Creeds.  The word Filioque (“and from the Son”) was added to the Latin Creed probably by a local council in the Western Church in 410 C.E., without any authorization from a Church-wide (“ecumenical”) Council.  The addition, however, was later approved by the Bishop of Rome.   The Eastern Church rejected the addition saying that only an ecumenical council could change a creed approved by two ecumenical councils.  The Filioque became one of the two causes of the split between the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054 C.E.  The other was papal authority and the claim by the See of Rome that it had the authority to change the form of the Creed without approval of an Ecumenical Council. 

The New Testament is somewhat ambiguous on the matter.  The words of the original Creed “who proceeds from the Father” are based on John 15:26, which says the comforter “comes forth from the Father.”  John 14:25 has Jesus saying “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.”  John 20:22  says Jesus "breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit.")  Galatians 4:6, Romans 8:9, Philippians 1:19 calls the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of the Son", "the Spirit of Christ", "the Spirit of Jesus Christ."  Perhaps the best way to summarize all these somewhat contradictory passages is to say that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father through the Son.  But such wording has never been proposed or approved in Council of the United Church.  

In 1978 the Anglican Communion’s Lambeth Conference suggested that all member churches of the Communion “consider omitting the Filioque from the Nicene Creed.”   In 1985 the General Convention of The Episcopal Church recommended that the Filioque clause should be removed from the Nicene Creed in the Episcopal Prayer Book and approved rites, if this were endorsed by the 1988 Lambeth Council.  In 1988 the Lambeth Conference recommended that national provinces in their future Prayer Books delete the Filioque.   This was reaffirmed by the 1993 joint meeting of the Anglican Primates and Anglican Consultative Council.  At its 1994 General Convention, the Episcopal Church reaffirmed its intention to remove the words "and the son" from the Nicene Creed in the next revision of its Book of Common Prayer.   In the meantime, use of the Creed without the clause, or with the clause in brackets is authorized.

In the Roman Church, when Pope Francis was inaugurated two months ago, for the first time in 1,000 years the Patriarch of Constantinople attended the service.  The Gospel was chanted in Greek.  When the Creed was said, the Filioque was omitted. 

In light of all this, and as a sign of Christian unity and solidarity, the Worship Committee of Trinity Parish agreed unanimously last month to drop the Filioque (the bracketed phrase) from the Creed altogether in our public worship.  So this coming Sunday, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, we will affirm simply “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified…”

This step is aimed at greater Christian inclusiveness and less parochialism (and focus on the Western tradition alone).  It is done with full authorization from the National Church and the International Communion. 

So in addition to wearing red, please make sure you read carefully as you recite the Creed. 

Peace and Grace,

Fr. Tony+