A Creed

I believe in the Living God,

the divine Other, hidden and beyond all,

the Holy One who loves and lets be,

calling forth creation out of nothing:

whose life is a joyous communion,

a ceaseless giving and receiving and responding of love,

a mutuality of knowing and being known;

a superabundant life, over-flowing with meaning,

pouring itself out into space and time,

loving and sustaining the play of being.

I believe that in the fullness of time,

‘the One who loves and lets be’

freely unveiled in the realm of human beings

the pattern of divine existence.

Jesus of Nazareth,

who knew and loved ‘the One who loves and lets be’ as ‘Father’,

perfectly expressed the life of God.

Born of a woman and bestowing a human face

to the One hidden and beyond all,

he called men and women to be spiritually re-born

and so re-discover themselves as children of the Father.

He proclaimed a message of love and forgiveness,

peace and healing,

and gathered to himself a new community:

by word and deed he refashioned the very meaning of ‘God’.

He called forth a radical change of heart,

turned no-one away from the merciful compassion of the Father,

and liberated those who were given over to self-destruction.

He embraced the despised, the rejected and the victimised

and his way of being provoked the powers of the world;

he did not resist their wrath

but obediently surrendered himself in loving self-abandonment.

An innocent victim, he was executed upon a cross.

He died, an outcast, and was buried in the darkness of a tomb.

On the third day he was called forth out of death,

unravelling the judgement of the world;

his transfigured Presence was known by those whom he had loved.

He is alive for evermore, one with the Father,

pouring out life in abundance,

a saving reality

liberating those who call him ‘Lord’

from all that destroys, fragments and corrupts.

I believe that the Spirit of the Living God,

who unites the giving and receiving of love

within the life of the divine communion,

moves deep within the minds of all tribes and peoples,

inspiring the awareness of the Holy,

and calling forth into consciousness

the pattern of Jesus' way of being.

This same Holy Spirit of God

channels and renews the streams of love and healing

unleashed by Jesus,

animates the life of the community which bears his name,

and seeks to draw all life

into the playful relating of the divine communion,

where all is gift and all is grace,

all is feasting and all is joy.

I believe in the sacredness of the other,

the obligation to act justly,

the centrality of prayer,

the delight of worship,

the joyfulness of holy living,

the healing power of forgiveness,

the final consummation of human endeavour,

our utter dependence upon grace,

and the ever-present possibility of redemption.