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I believe in the church
After sections on God as pater, on Jesus Christ, and on holy spirit, the revised creed of AD381 concludes with a short miscellany beginning with a declaration of faith in one, holy, universal (katholiken) and apostolic church.
We have built the creed around the concept of Yahweh Elohim as infinite compassion and Jesus of Nazareth as its incarnation. The reality is that we have no access to either concept – compassion or its incarnation – except through our fellow human beings. Compassion is understood only in relation to other human beings around us, and our only access to the historic Jesus of Nazareth is through records kept by our fellow human beings. Even our concept of the Christ of faith is built on the idea of humankind and human compassion perfected. Ultimately this faith is dependent on our experience of humankind, and on our hopes and dreams for what humankind could be.
In the creed, we affirm our faith in the human community which is the church: not any single fallible institution, but an undefined essence of church that is holy, universal in the sense of diverse and all-embracing, and linked to a tradition of centuries that goes back to the first apostles. Some have placed the Father in first place in their personal creed, others the Christ, others holy spirit. The reality is that the church, made up of fellow human beings, necessarily comes first. Before we believe in Father, Son or holy spirit, we dare to believe in humankind, in the human community, in the best that humankind can be; in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Whatever the order of the text, our personal journey of faith begins not with any version of God, but with an intuitive faith in the potential of humankind. Ultimately we have a humanistic faith, and a humanistic creed.