The Symbol of Faith - I Believe…
The word ‘Creed’ comes from the Latin credo, meaning ‘I believe’. Creeds have been around since the earliest days in the Church, with the simplest one based on the confession that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), and that the Christ is the Lord, and the confession of this belief was a prerequisite for baptism. Depending on the heresies that a particular local community had to respond to, the creeds would often develop in different ways to better explain what this belief meant.
The main creed in the Orthodox Church is called ‘The Nicene Creed’, and sometimes referred to as ‘The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed’ or ‘The Symbol of Faith’ (’symbol’ coming from the Greek σύμβολος, ‘to throw/put together’). In 325AD, the First Ecumenical Council took one of the preexisting baptismal creeds and addressed the main heresy of the time, Arianism (the belief that Jesus was human, but not God); later, in 381AD, the Second Ecumenical Council took the Creed established and expanded it to address the next major heresy, concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit (those who believed that the Holy Spirit is not God are termed ‘Pneumatomachians’).
At the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon, the creed was ratified, and a few centuries later, already a staple for baptism services across the Church, it was inserted into the Divine Liturgy service.
Since then, it has been a very effective summary of the beliefs of the Orthodox Church, it’s theology and it’s Christology (beliefs about Christ). In the original, it was formulated as ‘We believe in…’, in accordance with the intent to provide a consensus of belief; in common practise, making the point that faith is something that an individual does, the text is as follows:
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 we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets;
And we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.
We look for the Resurrection of the dead,
And the Life of the world to come. Amen.