One day, three creeds: on the significance of the creeds on feast days

Upon these Feasts; Christmas Day, the Epiphany, Saint Matthias, Easter Day, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, Saint John Baptist, Saint James, Saint Bartholomew, Saint Matthew, Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Saint Andrew, and upon Trinity Sunday, shall be sung or said at Morning Prayer, instead of the Apostles' Creed, this Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly called the Creed of Saint Athanasius, by the Minister and people standing - BCP 1662 rubric for Quicunque Vult, at Morning Prayer.

In contemporary Anglican liturges (and, indeed, in the contemporary Roman rite), this feast of the birth of St John the Baptist would pass with one Creed being said, the Nicene Creed at the Holy Communion. In the current context in the UK, with public worship not yet having resumed, if Common Worship Daily Prayer is used, or the Roman Liturgy of the Hours, no Creed will be said on this day.

The contrast with the Prayer Book provision is stark: Athanasian Creed at Mattins, Nicene Creed at Ante-Communion, Apostles' Creed at Evensong. St John Baptist's Day, in other words, is drenched in the Church's Christological confessions. The Athanasian Creed summarises the teaching of Chalcedon that the Lord is "Perfect God, and perfect Man ... not two, but one Christ"; the Nicene Creed affirms that the Son is of "one substance" with the Father; the Apostles' Creed roots Christian life in saving death and resurrection of the Son of God.

This robust provision ensures that our celebration of the witness of "thy servant John Baptist" is understood in a richly Christological context. What does it mean for the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord? To exhort us to "Behold the Lamb of God"? To confess "He must increase, but I must decrease"? It means that the One to whom the Baptist points is truly God and truly Man; eternally of one substance with the Father; that He who suffered, died, and rose for us is "our Lord".

The three Creeds professed on the feast, then, joyously echo the epistle reading from Isaiah 40 provided for this day:

and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together ... Behold, your God!

This highlights the purpose of such feast days in the classical BCP: they orient us towards and draw us into the Christological centre. Even on those feasts when the Athanasian Creed is not appointed for use - or in those versions of the BCP in which it is not used liturgically - the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds ensure that the Christological centre is set before us. The Creeds embody and enact the witness of these saints, pointing us to the One who is the Church's centre.

The use of the Athanasian Creed, however, adds another layer of meaning to the liturgical celebration of key feasts, unveiling the depths of the Christological confession. In the case of today's feast, the Athanasian Creed at Mattins brings us to perceive what it meant for Saint John Baptist to encounter Jesus of Nazareth - "Perfect God, and perfect Man ... God and Man is one Christ", the One whom the Prophet Isaiah foresaw amongst "the cities of Judah".

The absence of the Apostles' and Athanasian Creeds from most contemporary versions of the daily office detracts from this character of the observance of feasts of the saints as a means of renewing the Church in the Christological confession. In many ways, this absence reflects the crisis of confidence in the Christological confession which afflicted the Church in the second half of the 20th century. The daily office without a Creed gives liturgical expression to the empty banalities of Honest to God and The Myth of God Incarnate. One result of this is to minimize and empty of depth the witness of the saints. They encountered a metaphor rather than the truth of God Incarnate. They point us to a vague idea (of the Kingdom or - heaven help us - 'kindom') rather than the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who took our flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This is why the Creeds matter in the daily office during the festivals of the saints. They proclaim the fulness of grace and truth these saints encountered and to which they testify. They proclaim the God whom these saints encountered and to whom they point. Our confession of the Creeds during the daily office on these feasts draws us to the God whom they encountered, whom they confess, to whom they witness, that we, like them, may be renewed in life in and through Him.

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

1928 practices and the 1979 book: unthinking conservatism or popular piety?

Those responsible for Earth & Altar - a new blog emanating from a group within TEC - are to be congratulated for an excellent contribution to wider Anglican discussion and debate. The commitment to "an expansively conceived credal orthodoxy as fully compatible with LGBTQ inclusion, gender equality, and racial justice" is an important part of a wider retrieval of creedal orthodoxy within what we might call the post-liberal generation. It is in this spirit that I want to respond to a recent post on the site by Andrew McGowan , Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School. Against the background of another round of "ill-defined" liturgical revision in TEC, he understandably urges that a fuller reception of the 1979 BCP should occur before further reforms. In doing so, however, he takes aim at what he describes as "clinging to the ritual structures of 1928" while using the text of 1979. We ...

laudable Practice

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