One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church

ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH

Every Sunday at the Eucharist, we recite the Nicene Creed, which was produced by the Council of Nicea in 325AD. In it, we declare boldly that we believe in "one holy catholic and apostolic church".

The words drop easily from our lips, but do we ever stop and think about what we are saying?

This morning I want to try and unpack those words "one holy catholic and apostolic church".

But before I do that, we need to ask the question, what is the purpose of a creed?

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Joyce hates me going shopping at Church House Bookshop in London, because she knows that I will be there for a long time. Time which she would prefer to spend looking at shoes elsewhere.

Now sometimes when I go into the shop, I know exactly what I want because I have read a book review, which has already whetted my appetite for a book.

At other times, I just go in to see what are the latest books.

Time obviously does not allow for me to examine the books in detail to see what they are about. What I usually do is to read the blurb on the back cover of a book to see if it would interest me.

Take for instance a book, which caught my eye earlier this year. It was called Hope for the Church by Bob Jackson.

The blurb on the cover read, "In an increasingly secular age.... what future is there for the church? Should recent trends in attendance of church lead us to despair or hope?"

It went on to say, "In this timely book, Bob Jackson argues not only that today's church attendance patterns must concern us, but also that they provide vital clues for the future. He outlines practical ideas for growth and passionately argues his case that there are real grounds for hope if the Church takes action".

It continues, "Jackson sets out to tackle vital questions such as,

· the most significant factors in growing congregations;

· leadership, its role in successful churches:

· the vital role of ministry to young people."

In other words, the blurb on the back cover gave me a summary of the 196 pages of the book.

Now that is the purpose of the Christian creeds, such as that produced at Nicea. Just as a headline to a newspaper article seeks to summarise the article that follows, so the Christian Creeds seek to summarise Christian belief.

So let us proceed to unpack part of that summary expressed in the words, "I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church".

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Firstly, it reminds us that, contrary to what we might think or see, the church is ONE.

Way back in the mid 1950's, a large new housing estate was built on the outskirts of my home town of Ipswich. In the centre of the estate was a small shopping complex. Also in the centre of the estate, opposite the shops, there were built three new churches - a Roman Catholic Church, a Baptist Church/Chapel and an Anglican Church. Each church, like the shops opposite, looked for customers.

This upset me greatly. It looked as if each church was in competition with the others. I wondered what kind of message it was sending out to the new residents. Why could there not be just an Anglican Church? After all, we are the established church in the land!

Shortly after this, at the tender age of 16 years, yet already aware that God had called me to be a priest, I became drawn into the Ipswich Junior Ecumenical movement. It was a time when few people could pronounce the word "ecumenical", let alone spell it!

In the course of study of various Christian traditions, and through discussions, I became aware how, throughout history, various traditions had come to emphasise various aspects of Christian doctrine. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church emphasised the sacramental side of life, whilst the Baptists emphasised the place of the Bible.

However, I quickly became aware that there was a basic unity - which under-laid all the Christian traditions. That there was essentially ONE church, of which Jesus Christ is the foundation and to which all Christians are united like stones of a building through Baptism. However, over the years that unity had become marred by our man-made differences, each thinking they, and they alone, were being true to the revelation of God through the Bible.

The situation continues today, but there is closer co-operation between the various Christian traditions with no one any longer claiming a monopoly of the truth. However, there is still a long way to go till we reflect the unity that exists between God and Jesus.

And so, in the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity we pray, in the words of the High Priestly prayer of Jesus, ‘that we may become one, just as the Father and He are one'.

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Secondly, the Creed reminds us that the Church is HOLY.

The word "holy" comes from the Greek word 'hagios', which means different - different from ordinary things. So the Ten Commandments talk about keeping the Sabbath "holy", in other words "different" from the other six days of the week. We talk about the "Holy Table", or altar, a table which is different from other tables. We talk also about the "Holy Bible" which means a book, which is different from other books.

What is true of things is also true of those who believe in a "Holy God". We are expected to live "holy lives" - lives that are different from other lives around us.

It is a sad reflection of our secular society that nowadays we tend to mock people who live holy lives. We call them 'holy Joes’. We hold them up to ridicule, whether it is Emily Bishop in Coronation Street or Dot in East Enders. They tend to be objects of fun, rather than objects of inspiration.

We tend to think that only saints are holy people and forget that in the New Testament, we are all called as members of the Church to be *holy".

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The creed reminds us that we believe in a church which is ONE and HOLY.

Thirdly, it reminds us that the church is CATHOLIC.

Over the years, that word "catholic" has come to be used as a description of that part of the Christian church which looks towards Rome for its inspiration and leadership.

It is sad when that church talks about ‘non-catholic churches', thereby implying that they alone are the true church.

The word 'catholic' comes from the Greek word "Katholikos" which means "general" or "universal".

Instead of the word creating barriers between various Christian traditions and establishing a kind of religious apartheid, it should remind us that the church is inclusive and not exclusive.

As St Paul reminds the Christian church in Galatians: "In Christ Jesus you are all children of God...There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 3.28)

In other words, the word "catholic" reminds us that we believe in a church which has no barriers of colour, caste, clans, social status, party or sect.

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Finally, we believe in a church, which is APOSTOLIC.

The word "apostolic" derives from the Greek word "apostolos" which means 'sent out'.

It is a church which traces its origins back to the apostles themselves who were 'sent out' by Jesus. In fact, if the apostles had remained in the Upper Room, meditating upon their spiritual navels, we would not be here today!

Now whether people are here tomorrow, depends upon you and me. It depends whether we are "apostolic" in our discipleship, whether we are prepared to be sent out from this Eucharist to be Christians in the world, or whether we prefer to hide behind the stained glass windows of our church buildings.

If anything saddens me, it is the inwardness of church members who prefer to be concerned about the trivia of church life and miss the golden opportunities for evangelism.

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So when we summarise our Christian belief in the words of the Nicene Creed this morning, and declare that we believe in ‘one holy catholic and apostolic church', we are declaring that:

· the Christian Church is One, despite our differences of emphasis.

· the Christian Church is Holy, and that we as members of it, are expected to lead holy lives which will separate us from the secular and pagan world.

· the Christian Church is Catholic, and therefore inclusive rather than exclusive in its membership, and finally

· the Christian Church is Apostolic, and consists of people who, like the early apostles, are sent out to bear witness to their faith.

And now to the God who calls his Church to be one holy catholic and apostolic in its character, be all might, majesty and power, today and always. Amen.