The evangelical Southern Baptists of the Bible Belt farming town I grew up in can take a bow. I came to a new appreciation of their impact on my life and my system of beliefs after taking this All Saints class after a month at the church. This process really is a fascinating one.
My friend Dragon came with me and asked the group if one had to believe in the Trinity to be an accepted member of All Saints Episcopal Church. Oh definitely not, was the overwhelming reply. One woman said you could be a Sufi and attend this church.
Sufi? Ok, I’ll just ignore that particular comment.
Because this congregation recites the Nicene Creed together on Sundays. Have you read that lately? Let me refresh your memory, because when it comes to Jesus and the Trinity, the Nicene Creed is an uncompromising, hard core belief statement.
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.
One woman, who referred to herself as a cradle Episcopalian (in her case, a fourth generation Episcopalian), said that Pastor Kit did an exercise about once a year where the congregation was asked to sit or stand for the portions of the Nicene Creed they believed in. At this point the Nicene Creed is not a part of my personal beliefs but that doesn’t mean I don’t have hard core beliefs, that taking a stance on theological issues isn’t important to me, that certain unproven and unprovable things don’t matter to me a great deal.
In case you’re new to me, let me reiterate that I don’t believe that there is only one way to God (heck, I don’t even believe that there’s only one way to God for me). I believe there are many, many ways to God. But what I’m trying to get at right now is what way I’m going to take.
Because I believe that what I believe matters to God. That He takes a real and intimate interest in what I hold to be true. That He cares about how I behave as well, yes, but that God also cares where I stand about the Trinity and the divinity of Christ, among a host of other things. That’s a very Baptist stance. And apparently it’s not a very UU thing, or a very important thing to this group of Episcopalians, either.
My Seat Buddy has a very beautiful way of looking at Jesus. When he talks about Jesus he holds up an open palm and says he can allow his beliefs about Jesus to sit like a bird on his hand. He doesn’t have to define every detail of Jesus’s place in the religious landscape. He can view him as a teacher through whom God spoke. Even as a person at the right hand of God. Without being troubled by questions of his divinity or his role in the Trinity.
But I need to wrestle with these questions before I can settle on a perspective.
Because one of the things I’m looking for in a new church is a group of people with whom I will hold similar beliefs. Not identical beliefs, but similar beliefs. I’m willing to explore the divinity of Christ in my own faith structure: to pray on it, to read about it, to open myself to the concept after 30 years of rejecting it outright, so that I can potentially share that core belief with a group of other Christians. And I would want those core beliefs to be as important to the other members of the congregation as they are to me.
What I took away from this adult formation class is that being accepted for who they are (mainly expressed in an open and affirming stance about LBGTQ issues), ritual (that the same Episcopalian service is performed the world over every Sunday) and community (that people have important relationships with other members of the congregation) are very, very important to the members of this church. Particular points of theology are less so.
And all of that is great. But acceptance and community are not the #1 things on my list of desireable church characteristics. I know this didn’t come up on my list of things I want in a church; that’s because it went without saying. It is the foundation. It is finally what pushed me away from the UU church. I’m looking for a place to worship God. To feel the presence of God. And to be honest I haven’t felt that with other people since I last prayed at a mosque. If I find THAT, this search will be over.
I have been known in my life for being edgy on occasion. I guess I just never thought that I’d be in danger of being accused of being a radical for spending a month trying to snuggle up to the Nicene Creed.
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