Diocese of Niagara: Do you have to believe the Creeds?

The glib answer might be “not if you are the bishop”, but the diocese does give us its answer here. It starts off promisingly enough:

The Creeds are statements that contain a summary of our basic beliefs. The word “Creed” comes from the Latin word creo which means “I believe.”

In the Anglican Church, we say both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed in our worship. Because we are a community of faith, we openly declare our beliefs and in this way unite ourselves to Christians in the past, present and future.

When we get down to the thorny question, Do I have to Believe Everything in the Creeds, we find this answer:

Relationship with God is a personal journey and also one we share with others in this community of faith. The Creeds clearly state the beliefs of the Church, and we recite them as we join with those around us in the process of discovering our own relationship with God. So it is not easy to answer this question “yes” or “no,” It is important that we take part with fellow seekers in this lifelong journey.

So the requirement for a Christian in the diocese of Niagara is not actual agreement with the “beliefs of the Church”, rather a willingness to state them along with others – who presumably don’t believe them either – as we “discover[ing] our own relationship with God”, whatever that means. In saner times, this would be called “hypocrisy”; now it is a “personal journey”.

This stellar advice to the budding Christian was written by The Rev. Canon Michael Patterson when he was Director of Evangelism. Much of his tenure in that position was spent in engaging in focus groups to try and come to some understanding of what the word “Evangelism”  means; as far as I know there was never a final consensus. Having flunked evangelism, Canon Michael is employing his formidable talents in attempting to wrestle parish properties away from congregations that need them for worship; a task more suited to his abilities, perhaps.