I was sitting in class this morning — an Anglican Essentials course I am taking — and our instructor said something that stopped me in my tracks.
He pointed out that the Apostles' Creed says I believe, and the Nicene Creed says we believe. Same faith. Two creeds. Two different words. And it's not a typo.
I'll be honest — I've recited both of these creeds more times than I can count. But I don't think I ever really sat with that difference until this morning.
Here's What I Learned
The Apostles' Creed was written for baptism. When someone came to be baptized in the early Church, they made a personal confession of faith. Out loud. In front of the congregation. I believe in God the Father. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in the Holy Spirit. It was theirs to say — no one could say it for them.
That's why it's I believe. Because baptism is personal. Your faith is yours.
The Nicene Creed came later, out of a council of bishops in 325 AD who came together to define what the whole Church confessed together. It wasn't one person at a baptism. It was the Church speaking as one body. So it became we believe.
What Hit Me
What I kept thinking about after class is that Anglicanism actually holds both of these things on purpose — and that matters.
Your faith has to be personal. You have to own it. No one can believe for you. That's the I in the Apostles' Creed.
But you were also never meant to do this alone. You are part of a Body that has been saying these same words for nearly two thousand years. That's the we in the Nicene Creed.
I think a lot of Christians live in one or the other. Either their faith is so personal it becomes isolated — just them and their Bible, accountable to no one. Or their faith is so corporate it never becomes their own — they're going through the motions without any personal encounter with God.
The creeds, taken together, won't let you do either one.
Just Going Off What I Heard This Morning
I'm not a theologian. I'm just someone sitting in a class on a Sunday morning taking notes.
But sometimes the simplest things — a single word change between I and we — are the ones that stick with you on the drive home.
CJ Lester is the founder of CJ Lester Investigates, an independent accountability journalism outlet covering Conyers and Oxford, Georgia.
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