WHAT WE BELIEVE

 

The Church’s Creeds are confessional prayers (and it’s important that we understand them and speak them as prayers, not merely a recitation of facts) trace their roots to the early centuries of the Church. The Creeds join us with the global church across the centuries in narrating the story of our faith and confessing our shared submission to One Lord, our Triune God.

“Great theology is always a kind of giant and intricate poetry, like epic or saga.”
— Marilynne Robinson

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth;
and 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 into hell.
On the third day, he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and sits on 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.

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He 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.



All Souls is a church centered on the radical presence of Jesus and the truths that Jesus has revealed to the world. In our Theology we hope to be:

  • We are a creedal church, affirming the Apostles and Nicene creeds. We seek to worship and be continually shaped by the reality that God has revealed Godself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  • We are also a diverse church, recognizing that there are many important and complicated matters that the Creeds do not answer for us—and that the global Church is wrestling to answer as well. We do not shy from difficult conversations, and our leadership reflects a myriad of viewpoints on controversial matters. However, we believe that as we declare Jesus as Lord over our lives—and over our theology—that we can find a unity around Jesus’ Table that rejects the antagonisms and polarities that our world (and church world) often assumes.

  • We are a sacramental church, shaped by weekly Eucharist. We believe that God is truly present with us, in the person of Jesus and by the power of the Spirit as we worship, as we pray, as we pass the peace, as we hear the Scriptures, as we receive Christ’s body and blood.

  • We are a curious church, assuming that God welcomes our questions with delight, even as we discover how God’s questions are always better than our own. We desire to foster humble conviction and generosity, believing that the way we hold the truth is itself an essential portion of the truth.

  • We seek to be a church that always bends our knee—our hopes, our desires, our loyalties—to Jesus Christ. We seek to be a church that announces the healing presence of God in the midst of our pain, our turmoil, our injustices, our poverty, our success, our joy, our sorrow. To borrow from Fleming Rutledge, we believe God is the subject of every sentence.