"A compendious Catholic Creed": the Gloria Patria in the opening versicles at Matins and Evensong
The Doxology, Gloria Patri, is not merely an admirable hymn, containing a particular adoration of each of the persons, in the holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity. But it is likewise a compendious Catholic Creed; for the substance of a Christian's faith is, to believe in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
This understanding continues as Shepherd quotes from Hooker, who was echoing Basil. Faith in the Holy Trinity is sufficiently expressed through Baptism in the Triune Name, confessing the Apostles' Creed, and declaring the praise of the Triune God in the Gloria Patri:
Our own Hooker, who has adopted Basil's arguments, says, "Baptizing, we use the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Confessing the Christian faith, we declare our belief in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. Ascribing glory to God, we give it to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." It is, continues Hooker, quoting the words of Basil, the token, evidence, or demonstration of a true understanding, or sound belief for matter of doctrine concerning the Trinity, when in administering baptism, making confession, and giving glory, there is a conjunction of all three, and no one is severed from the other.
The placing of the Gloria Patri in the opening versicles and responses, after the confession and absolution, thus provides a Trinitarian shape to our praise and thanksgiving. Again, note a 'Trinitarian minimalism' at this point, echoing the Catechism's summary of Trinitarian faith:
It has been observed, that David, in some of his penitential psalms, after confessing his sins, declaring his distress, and imploring pardon and deliverance, turns his petitions into praises, his sighs and groans into songs of thanksgiving. Thus we, in humble hope, that our gracious Father, for his Son's sake, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, will forgive us our offences, rise up and ascribe glory to God, to the Father, who grants us absolution, to the Son, through whom it was purchased and obtained, and to the Holy Ghost, by whom it is sealed and dispensed.
Finally, Shepherd is fully aware that equivalents to the Gloria Patri in patristic churches and writers employed different language and descriptions. The absence of uniformity of language or description is not, however, of significance. In another example of 'Trinitarian minimalism', Shepherd emphasises that the variety of language and description gave expression to the shared confession of the Triune God - in other words, a uniform formula was not required for this shared confession:
Hence it is obvious, that a considerable degree of variety, in the expression and form, would naturally, and must necessarily, ensue. Still, however, with some little difference in the phrase of their Doxologies, the Christians of the three first ages agreed in uniformly expressing the same thing. Believing, and confessing, that in the eternal Godhead there existed Three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, they ascribed to them, all honor and glory. Whether they mentioned the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit first; whether they used this, or that preposition, copulative, or conjunction, were matters of which they were little studious.
Shepherd brings us to see the Gloria Patri as a key liturgical expression of 'Trinitarian minimalism'. The Church's praise of the Triune God needs no more than this acknowledgement of the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Its use in the opening versicles and responses ensures that our praise, adoration, and thanksgiving is, from the outset, ordered to the Triune God. Whether simply spoken by minister and congregation, or sung by the choir, the Gloria Patri proclaims the truth and joy of the Church's Faith in God the Holy Trinity, not as complex scholastic formula but as the God revealed in Holy Scripture.
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