August 2, 2023

Beloved in Christ:


You, O God, are supreme and holy.
You create our world and give us life.
Your purpose overarches everything we do.
You have always been with us.
You are God.

You, O God, are infinitely generous,
good beyond all measure.
You came to us before we came to you.
You have revealed and proved
your love for us in Jesus Christ,
who lived and died and rose again.
You are with us now.
You are God.

You, O God, are Holy Spirit.
You empower us to be your gospel in the world.
You reconcile and heal; you overcome death.
You are our God. We worship you.

This is the Affirmation of Faith from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer. For several weeks, we have been using this in our 10:30am Liturgy in place of the Nicene Creed. When we make a change to our approved liturgies from The Book of Common Prayer, clergy (or lay leaders) have to ask the Bishop permission to do so. Bishop Loya gave his permission and then asked me to get back to him at the end of the summer with the feedback from people in the congregation, plus my own. A handful of Calvary members have given me feedback, but I would love to hear from more of you.


This Sunday, August 6, is Transfiguration Sunday. We will have Morning Prayer at 8:30am and Holy Eucharist at 10:30. In my homily, I will be talking about the Affirmation of Faith and why I felt drawn to it for our summer worship. I hope you can be there in person or via the Live Stream. In any case, I invite you to pray this Affirmation of Faith in your devotionals this week, thinking about what response it evokes in you and why. How does this compare to the Nicene Creed for you? Do you like the Affirmation of Faith? Why or why not? The Nicene Creed? Why or why not?

I’m not thinking that we would replace the Nicene Creed in our liturgy, although some other faith communities have done so; I am interested in what it would be like if we used alternating Creeds in different seasons.

Let me know!

In gratitude,

Beth+