Wednesday, June 22, 2016

"Inclusive" (Excluding the Masculine Words) Nicene Creed Experimented With in an Episcopal Diocese of the Left Coast

I received the following from a friend in the "Diocese of the Left Coast". Their Episcopal priest announced that the "Inclusive" Nicene Creed would be used during Pentecost. This is how it was printed in their service bulletin,
"(This is an inclusive-language translation of the original form of the Creed as used before 1054 and as still used by the Orthodox churches. The Creed need not be done every week.) 
We believe in three divine persons in one God:
We believe in the Creator, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Savior, Jesus Christ, eternally begotten of the Creator, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Creator. Through Christ all things were made. For us and for our salvation, the only Begotten came down from heaven and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was born of the virgin, Mary, and became human.
For our sake, Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, died, and was buried, but on the third day rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures, then ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Creator.
One day, Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and God’s kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Creator, and who, with the Creator and the Begotten, is worshiped and glorified. The Spirit has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen."
Right off the bat, notice that God as "the Father" gets excluded and He becomes "the Creator".  He is not clearly identified as one of the Persons of the Trinity. The Jesus as "son" can be forgotten once references to "the Father" get the ax.

Next, note how Jesus is never referred to as "he" or "Lord".

Then, observe how Jesus was made "human" instead of "man".

Lastly, the omission of filioque clause with its "and the son" leaves the creed totally emasculated.

Wiser minds than mine can argue about the other theological problems with this, but I wonder about the ecclesiastical issue of using something that is not in the Book of Common Prayer in regular worship. Do you think this priest will be disciplined by their mandala gazing bishop?

I am certain that the writers of the Nicene Creed would be horrified to read this new version.

Inquisitive as to where this Episcopal priest came up with this "creed", I did a web search quoting the intro and found the possible source:
"THE UNITED CATHOLIC CHURCH"
This is not the Roman Catholic Church but a rogue group that sounds suspiciously like the Episcopal church. They describe themselves as,
    "Ecumenical, Inclusive, Non-Judgmental, and Independent;  
     An Old Catholic Heritage Church for the Church's Homeless" (description used by the      United Catholic Church on their web page).
I had never heard of them before, and I bet Pope Francis never has either because,
"As a denomination, we are one of hundreds of autocephalous catholic churches in the United States."
(Autocephalous = no Pope)

And it is a teensy weensy denomination that consists of,
"In 2012, 26 ordained clergy persons in 11 parishes and 10 outreach missions/chaplaincies."
Update: week 2 of Pentecost, and after a bit of a dust-up, the parish was back to the BCP version.

1 comment:

  1. I have run across this heresy before, so no surprise there.

    I do just love how they like to create confusion through associating their new thing with the "original" language and then writing a whole new creed. This falsehood, of course, relays on the laity not being able to read or understand the history, controversies, or language of the original.

    My advice to the laity, do all you can to educate yourself so that you can save your fellows from the errors of the "trained" clergy.

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