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(DRAFT)
Fifteen Affirmations for Advent 2004:
Toward a Faithful United Church of
Canada Statement of Faith for the Start of the Third Millennium
- FAITH AND LIFE -
1. Faith
is repentance–turning to God in humility and contrition
(Mk 1:15; Ps 51:17; Mt 3:8). Faith is trust–trust in God and in his Word
made flesh, Jesus Christ (Jn 1:14; 3:16; 14:1).
Faith is obedience–obedience to God’s commandments (Exod 20:1-17; Deut
5:6-21; Mt 22:37-40).
Faith involves hope–hope in God (Pss 42 & 43), who raises the dead
(Acts 24:15; 26:6-8).
Faith involves love (Jn 13:34-35; 14:15; 15:9-10; Jas 2:26); what avails
is faith working through love (Gal 5:6).
Faith is faithfulness (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17 etc.).
Faith is waiting on God (Ps 27:14) and on Jesus Christ’s promise of the
Holy Spirit (Lk 24:49; Jn 7:37-39; 14:16-18; 15:26).
Faith is prayer to the Father (Mt 6:9) through the Son (1 Tim 2:5) by
the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:15-16, 26).
The historic creeds are saying, "I live in a union of love with
God."
2. The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten,
begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, Very God of Very
God, Begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things
were made:
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was
incarnate of the Holy spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;
And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was
buried;
And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;
And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father;
And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead,
Whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who
proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is
worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the prophets;
And I believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the dead,
And the Life of the world to come. Amen.
3. The
Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven;
he sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
4. The faith of the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds has been accepted
by virtually all Christians in all places throughout all time. Affirming
these creeds gives among other things a voice and a vote to the Church whom
the Holy Spirit has guided through the ages (Jn 14:26; 16:13).
5. We affirm our belief in the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments as the primary source and ultimate standard of Christian faith
and life. We acknowledge the teaching of the great creeds of the ancient Church.
We further maintain our allegiance to the evangelical doctrines of the
Reformation, as set forth in common in doctrinal standards adopted by the
Presbyterian Church in Canada, by the Congregational Union of Ontario and
Quebec, and by the Methodist Church.
We believe that the Basis of Union Doctrine of 1925 is the only
constitutional statement of faith in The United Church of Canada.
6. Holy Scripture
The Bible has been given to us by the inspiration of God to be the rule
of faith and life. It is the standard of all doctrine by which we must test
any word that comes to us from church, world, or inner experience. We
subject to its judgment all we believe and do. Through the Scriptures the
church is bound only to Jesus Christ its King and Head. He is the living
Word of God to whom the written word bears witness.
The Holy Spirit gives us inner testimony to the unique authority of the
Bible and is the source of its power. The Bible, written by human hands, is
nonetheless the word of God as no other word ever written. To it no other
writings are to be added. The Scriptures are necessary, sufficient, and
reliable, revealing Jesus Christ, the living Word.
Both Old and New Testaments were written within communities of faith and
accepted as Scripture by them. Those who seek to understand the Bible need
to stand within the church and listen to its teaching.
The Bible is to be understood in the light of the revelation of God’s
work in Christ. The writing of the Bible was conditioned by the language,
thought, and setting of its time. The Bible must be read in its historical
context. We interpret Scripture as we compare passages, seeing the two
Testaments in light of each other, and listening to commentators past and
present. Relying on the Holy Spirit, we seek the application of God’s word
for our lives.
(Ps 119:97-112, 162-176; Rom 15:4; 2 Tim 3:14-17; 2 Pet 1:20-21
etc.)
7. The Standards of Sexual Conduct
God designed human sexuality not only for procreation but also for the
joyful expression of love, honour, and fidelity between wife and husband.
These are the only sexual relations that biblical theology deems good and
holy.
Adultery, fornication, and homosexual unions are intimacies contrary to
God’s design. The church must seek to minister healing and wholeness to
those who are sexually scarred, or who struggle with ongoing sexual
temptations, as most people do. Homophobia and all forms of sexual
hypocrisy and abuse are evils against which Christians must ever be on
their guard. The Church may not lower God’s standards of sexual morality
for any of its members, but must honour God by upholding these standards
tenaciously in face of society’s departures from them.
Congregations must seek to meet the particular needs for friendship and
community that single persons have.
(Gen 1:26-28; 2:21-24; Mt 5:27-32; 19:3-12; Lk 7:36-50; Jn 8:1-11;
Rom 1:21-28; 3:22-24; 1 Cor 6:9-11, 13-16; 7:7; Eph 5:3; 1 Tim 1:8-11;
3:2-4, 12.)
8. The Family and the Call to Singleness
The family is a divinely ordained focus of love, intimacy, personal
growth, and stability for women, men, and children. Divorce, child abuse,
domestic violence, rape, pornography, parental absenteeism, sexist
domination, abortion, common-law relationships, and homosexual
partnerships, all reflect weakening of the family ideal. Christians must
strengthen family life through teaching, training, and active support, and
work for socio-political conditions that support the family. Single-parent
families and victims of family breakdown have special needs to which congregations
must respond with sensitivity and support.
Singleness also is a gift from God and a holy vocation. Single people
are called to celibacy and God will give them grace to live in chastity.
(Ps 119:9-11; Prov 22:6; Mt 5:31-32; Mk 10:6-9; 1 Cor 6:9-11; Eph
5:21-6:4; Col 3:18-21; 1 Jn 3:14-15.)
- DEAD ENDS
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9. Materialism
"The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’" (Ps.
14:1).
Although the evidence of design in the universe and life–and therefore of
a Creator--has become clearer in recent years, Canada’s economic, political
and judicial life has largely been operating on the assumption that there
is no God and that matter is all (Feuerbach, Marx and Rand). Even the
mention of God’s supremacy in the Charter is shrugged off as a dead letter
(B.C. Justice Mary Southin). The result has been the gradual replacement of
Judaeo-Christian moral standards by a relativistic attitude to justice and
morality and a consequent decline in family life and in business and
political ethics. The law of the jungle, or a dog-eat-dog amorality, is the
future of such a materialist ideology–a future in which democracy and human
rights will not survive.
We are called to remember the first and great commandment: "You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your strength" (Deut 6:5). And we remember the Lord Jesus
Christ’s teaching, "This the first and great commandment. And the
second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these
two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Mt 22:38-40).
10. Hedonism
"So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under
the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry..." (Eccl 8:15).
Without a goal such as Wesley’s perfection (more love) or St. Peter and
St. Paul’s sanctification (1 Pet 1:15-16; 1 Thess 4:3), fallen human beings
tend to put pleasure as the purpose of our existence. Of course earthly
pleasure is a good; God invented it; but it cannot serve as the goal of
life for human beings, who were created in God’s image and who can
therefore find rest only in Him (St. Augustine).
Sometimes the pursuit of pleasure is obviously self-destructive, as in
drug addiction, alcoholism and promiscuity. At the end of life a hedonist
may opt for suicide, since physical pleasures may be outweighed by debility
or pain. In any case hedonism tends to limit one’s concern to oneself and
therefore to the neglect of family and society, of church and maturing
spiritual growth (Lk 8:14).
We are called to consider St. Paul’s teaching that "the kingdom of
God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit" (Rom 14:17). We remember the prophet David’s prayer to
God, "You will show me the path of life; In your presence is fullness
of joy; At your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Ps 16:11). And
we pray that the Church may be built up, "till we all come to the
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect
man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we
should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness
of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all
things into him who is the Head–Christ" (Eph 4:13-15).
11.
Individualism
"In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was
right in his own eyes"
(Judg 17:6).
Individualism is as old as the human race and as new as the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. There is no question in our minds about the importance
of the individual to God. Jesus dramatically showed the individual’s
importance when he set a child among his disciples and said,
"Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say
to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is
in heaven" (Mt 18:1-10).
At the same time we remember that God the Holy Trinity said, "It is
not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to
him" (Gen 2:18). Every individual is born of a mother and father; the
individual newborn cannot survive and mature without family. And the adult
individual is disposed to seek a spouse or to live in some kind of
community. Without society and the benefits of cooperation, we would have
lives that are lonely, brutish and short. Such will be our future if the
state continues to exalt individual rights over the good of society as a
whole. The ongoing judicial interpretation of the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms is doing exactly this more often than not. The rulings to redefine
marriage are the most recent and appalling example of this exaltation of
individual rights over the good of society as a whole.
We are called both to remember that God instituted marriage in the
beginning and also to practise the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would
have them do to you (Lk 6:31). Individualism imprisoned in the self sees no
reason to do so and thereby shows its inadequacy for either
self-fulfillment or social peace. But our Lord Jesus Christ calls his
members to more than obedience to the Golden Rule; he said: "A new
commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you,
that you also love one another" (John 13:34). We are called to
sacrificial love.
12. Syncretism
"They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods–according to the
rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. To this day
they continue practising the former rituals; they do not fear the
Lord..." (2 Kin 17:33-34).
The judgment of the Old Testament prophets is that those who try to fear
both the Lord and their own gods do not really fear the Lord. Syncretism is
incompatible with Biblical religion. It is also incompatible with clear
thinking. In philosophy and morals the hardest and most essential rule is:
You can’t eat your cake and have it too. Churches that accept the false
gods of materialism, hedonism, or individualism along with a residue of
Christian faith are adulterating their commitment and thereby rendering it
unacceptable to God.
We affirm St. Peter’s message: "Nor is there salvation in any
other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we
must be saved" (Acts 4:12). And we
believe the Lord Jesus himself, when he told Thomas and us, "I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me" (Jn 14:6).
- TO BE PRAYED FOR AND AIMED AT
-
13. Social and Environmental Responsibility
We hold in reverence the whole creation as the theatre of God’s glory
and action. God rules the lives of individuals and nations, yet does not
negate our freedom and responsibility. Ever at work in the world and in our
lives, God directs all things towards fulfilment in Christ.
We serve and love God by the service and love of creation, especially
the care of the needy. Every kind of work that is honest and serves others
is a vocation from the Lord.
Though life is a gift of God, human life depends on the created world.
Our care for the world must reflect God’s care. We are not owners, but
stewards of God’s good earth. Concerned with the well-being of all of life,
we welcome the truths and insights of all human skill and science about the
world and the universe.
Our stewardship calls us to explore ways of love and justice in
respecting God’s creation and in seeking its responsible use for the common
good. ( Gen 1:27-31; 2:15; Deut 8:18; Ps 24:1. Gen 50:20; Deut
30:19; Rom 8:28; Eph 1:7-10; Rev 11:15. Ps 41:1; 1 Cor 7:17; Eph 4:28; Jas
3:13-18. Exod 19:5; Lev 25:23; Ps 24:1; 8:4-6. Deut 10:12-14; Is 1:17; Mic
6:8; Mt 5:6; 2 Cor 8:9-15.)
The gospel constrains the church to be "salt" and
"light" in the world, working out the implications of biblical
teaching for the right ordering of social, economic, and political life,
and for humanity stewardship of creation. Christians must exert themselves
in the cause of justice and in acts of compassion. While no social system
can be identified with the coming kingdom of God, social action is an
integral part of our obedience to the gospel.
(Gen 1:26-28; Is 30:18;
58:6-10; Amos 5:24; Mt 5:13-16; 22:37-40; 25:31-46; Lk 4:17-21; Jn 20:21; 2
Cor 1:3-4; Jas 214-26; 1 Jn 4:16; Rev 1:5-6; 5:9-10.)
14. Christian Unity
Diversity is part of God’s creation; it is a good; it is a given. The
question is where we can find unity.
The Lord Jesus Christ prayed for the unity of his disciples and their
converts. He prayed to the Father: "Keep through your name those whom
you have given me, that they may be one as we are. ... I do not pray
for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their
word; that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you;
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that
you sent me" (Jn 17:11, 20-21). True unity is found in God’s unity of
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Organizational unity without this spiritual
unity is a deceit and may even be oppression.
St. Paul pleads with the Philippians to fulfil his joy "by being of
the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do
nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better
than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but
also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is
yours in
Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."
(Phil 2:2-11)
Unity is therefore found in humility of heart and obedience to the
Father’s will and whole-hearted confession by the power of the Holy Spirit
that Jesus Christ is Lord (cf. 1 Cor 12:3).
15. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world
without end. Amen.
ANNEXES
The Annexes are not intended to be part of the final version of this
statement but are included here to answer questions that might arise to
members of Church Alive’s Board of Directors and also to give credit to the
sources of derivative sections.
ANNEX "A"
NOTES TO SECTIONS OF THE FIFTEEN AFFIRMATIONS FOR ADVENT 2004
1. The last line’s quotation is from Father Maximos, an Athonite
monk and an Abbot in Cyprus. It corrects the tendency of the western
churches to intellectualism. The actual quotation is, "The [Nicene]
Creed actually means ‘I live in a union of love with God.’" From
Kyriacos C. Markides, The Mountain of Silence: A search for Orthodox
spirituality (Doubleday, 2001), p. 45.
2. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, 325-381 AD, was based on
a eastern baptismal creed similar to the Apostles’ Creed. The text here is
from The Divine Liturgy for Clergy and Laity: Text and music for
congregational participation (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese
of North America, 1996), pp. 44-45. The controversial filioque
interpolation common in the western churches was never authorized by any of
the seven ecumenical councils. In its present form the Nicene Creed is
older than the final form of the Apostles’ Creed.
3. The Apostles’ Creed, 90-700 AD, had a long development from a
simple western baptismal creed. In the western Church it is the baptismal
creed; it was preferred by Calvin and Barth; and it should be the usual
creed said during baptisms. Its displacement at baptisms by the New Creed
is to be regretted and challenged.
4. The Vincentian Canon (quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab
omnibus creditum est) is the three-fold test of catholicity proposed by
St Vincent (d. ca. 450) of Lerins in his Commonitorium.
5. The first paragraph is from the Basis of Union Doctrine (1925)
in The Manual, 1995, p. 13. The Basis of Union is the constitution
of The United Church of Canada; amendments require a remit to the
presbyteries (and sometimes to the congregations) and majority approval.
6. Chapter 5 of Living Faith: A statement of Christian belief
(Wood Lake Books, 1984), pp. 14-15). The Presbyterian Church in Canada
approved this statement as supplemnetary to the Westminster Confession of
1647. Its authors said that "it is hoped that the statement speaks to
a much wider circle than one denomination."
7. Section 14 of "The Montreal Declaration of Anglican
Essentials" (1994 June 21), in George Egerton, ed., Anglican
Essentials: Reclaiming faith within the Anglican Church of Canada (Anglican
Book Centre, 1995), p. 313.
8. Section 15 of "The Montreal Declaration...", p. 314.
13. The first four paragraphs are from Chapter 2 of Living
Faith, specifically 2.1.2, 2.3.2., and 2.4, pp. 6-8). The final
paragraph is Section 13 of "The Montreal Declaration...", p. 313.
ANNEX "B"
The Second World War from 1939 to 1945 was caused by the rise of
Naziism. In response to the false ideology of Naziism and its influence on
the federated German Church, the Confessing Church of Germany affirmed the Barmen
Declaration of 1934. This statement of faith is still relevant in
the face of contemporary ideologies and we commend its six points as
follows:
1. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the
Father, but by me" (John 14:6). "Truly, truly, I say to you, he
who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way,
that man is a thief and a robber... I am the door; if anyone enters by me,
he will be saved" (John 10:1, 9).
Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one
Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in
life and in death.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church could and would have
to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this
one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as
God’s revelation.
2. "Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and
sanctification and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30).
As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins,
so in the same way and with the same seriousness he is also God’s mighty
claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from
the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his
creatures.
We reject the false doctrine, as though there were other areas of our
life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords–areas
in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.
3. "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every
way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body [is]
joined and knit together" (Eph. 4:15-16).
The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus
Christ acts presently as the Lord in Word and sacrament through the Holy
Spirit. As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst
of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message
as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and
wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the
expectation of his appearance.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church were permitted to
abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes
in prevailing ideological and political convictions.
4. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and
their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you;
but whoever would be great among you must be your servant" (Matt.
20:25,26).
The various offices in the Church do not establish a dominion of some
over the others; on the contrary, they are for the exercise of the ministry
entrusted to and enjoined upon the whole congregation.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, apart from this
ministry, could and were permitted to give to itself, or allow to be given
to it, special leaders vested with ruling powers.
5. "Fear God. Honor the emperor" (1 Peter 2:17).
Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the
Church also exists, the State has by divine appointment the task of
providing for justice and peace. [It fulfills this task] by means of the
threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment
and human ability. The Church acknowledges the benefit of this divine
appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the
Kingdom of God, God’s commandment and righteousness, and thereby the
responsibility both of rulers and of the ruled. It trusts and obeys the
power of the Word by which God upholds all things.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the State, over and beyond its
special commission, should and could become the single and totalitarian
order of human life, thus fulfilling the Church’s vocation as well.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church, over and beyond its
special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the
tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the
State.
6. "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matt.
28:20). "The word of God is not fettered" (2 Tim. 2:9).
The Church’s commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in
delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ’s
stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through
sermon and sacrament.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church in human arrogance
could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily
chosen desires, purposes, and plans.
ANNEX "C"
FIFTEEN AFFIRMATIONS FOR LENT 1974
See www.churchalive.ca,
Statements of Faith, following the Basis of Union.
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