= CREED 1

I believe in God who fathers and mothers me, loving and caring for me even more than I do for myself.

I believe that I am more than I am because God's power is present in me, creating me each moment, functioning in me, in my life.

I believe that Jesus is just as human as I am, and I join in his acceptance of the limitations, weaknesses, and tragedies of human life as well as the resurrections held within them.

I believe that Jesus is God, and I accept the way he sees life - his values, his words, his judgments - as the way I choose to live and the measure of God's judgment on me.

I believe in God's Spirit present in me, loving me, accepting me from the first, giving me all that I am.

I believe that I belong to God's people, manifesting God's presence in this world.

I believe that I can already rejoice with those who are saved because of God's action in me.

I believe that I can and do betray God's love, but that in my sinfulness I can turn my heart to my Saviour and forgiveness is already there.

I believe that each day I arise again, and that my resurrection and eternal life have already begun.

I believe, my God; help me to believe more firmly and deeply.

Marie L. Laux, SSND


= CREED 2

We believe in a loving God, creator of all, who forms and sustains us in power and in love.
We believe in a loving God who cares not that we are poor or rich, ignorant or specialists, slaves or
owners, outcast or accepted.
We believe in Jesus Christ, whose actions, words, suffering, conquest of death,
showed us what human life ought to be and what God is like.
We believe in Jesus Christ, who rose and who continues to rise that we may have life, that we
may be freed of prejudice, of arrogance, of fear, of hate, and that we may transform
the world into the City of God.
We believe in the Spirit who is with us now and with us always, whom we experience in prayer,
in loving action, in forgiveness, in the Word, in the community of all people;
who drives us
to change misery, hunger, tyranny, and exclusion into the City of God.
We believe that it is possible to build a just peace.
We believe in the community where life full of meaning is possible as we live in a just peace, and
We believe in a future with God. Amen.


= CREED 3

We believe that where people are gathered together in love
God is present
and good things happen
and life is full.

We believe that we are immersed in mystery
that our lives are more than they seem
that we belong to each other
and to a universe of great creative energies
whose source and destiny is God.

We believe that God is after us
that God is calling to us
from the depth of human life.

We believe that God loves us
and became human in Jesus.

In and with Jesus we believe that each of us
is situated in the love of God,
and the pattern of our life
will be the pattern of Jesus-
through death to resurrection.

We believe that the Spirit of Peace
is present with us, the Church,
as we gather to celebrate
our common existance, the resurrection of Jesus,
and the fidelity of God.

and most deeply we believe that in our struggle to love
we incarnate God in the world.
And so aware of mystery and wonder,
caught in friendship and laughter
we become speechless before the joy in our hearts
and celebrate the sacredness of life
in the Eucharist.


= CREED 4 A Prayer of Belief: A Confession

I bear witness
to the graceful darkness,
to the heart of all things,
to the truthtelling love we call "Abba!"

I bear witness
that the story of Jesus is luminous:
that in his mission as Prophet
and in his Lifting Up
he is the earthling Parable of God
for the healing of our broken race.
His crown of thorns
is a crown of sunrise.

I bear witness
to the Breath of freedom and hope
which his Passover released for the world:
the transforming gift
of graceful life together
as our common destiny.

I stand in the gathering of his disciples,
called and recalled by
the Story and the Water,
by our Bread on the altar,
and our human journey to proclaim,
to enact, to await the universal Easter.

Faith is not futile, Hope is not illusory,
Love is not wasted. S. Manning


= CREED 5 LIVING CREED

We believe in one God, Author of Life,
Creator of the Universe.
We believe in the son, Jesus Christ
Who came into the world seeking the lost
and redeeming the whole of creation.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life,
Who leads us to all Truth, renewing us
and enabling us to grow
In the likeness of Christ.
Create in us today
Faith, hope and love,
So that together we may liberate
Those who are oppressed
And work towards the renewal
of the whole earth.
(anon. Taken from Laughter, Silence and Shouting by Kathy Keay)

= CREED 6

I believe in God the creator of us all,
who has given the earth to all people, women and men.
I believe in Jesus Christ, who came to encourage us and to heal us,
to deliver us from the oppressors,
to proclaim the peace of God to all humankind.
He has given himself to the world,
it is amongst all people that God lives.

I believe in the spirit of God who works in every man and woman of goodwill.
I believe that God will finally destroy the power of sin in us all
and that humanity will share his everlasting live.

I do not believe in the right of the strongest, nor the force of arms, nor the power of the oppressors.

I want to believe in human rights, in the solidarity of all people, women and men, in the power of non-violence, but also in the power of resistance.

I do not believe in sexism, racism, wealth, privilege, or the established order. I believe that all women and men are equally human, that order based on violence and injustice is not order.

I believe that the whole world is my home and that the field I plough and the harvest I reap belongs to every person.

I do not believe that injustice and oppression are inevitable and equality unattainable.

I do not believe that all suffering is in vain, nor that our dreams will remain dreams, nor that death is the end.

But I dare to believe always and in spite of everything, in a new humanity, in God's own dream of a new heaven and a new earth where justice will flourish.