The Nicene Creed: Confessed Word for Word for Over 1,600 Years

The post presents the full text of the Symbol of Faith, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, in the form the Orthodox Church uses. It notes that the Creed was begun at the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325 and completed at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in 381. For more than 1,600 years the Orthodox Church has confessed it word for word, exactly as the councils gave it, and it is said aloud at every Divine Liturgy and at every baptism.

The post then prints the Creed in full. It opens with belief in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, true God of true God, of one essence with the Father.

It confesses that Christ came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.

The Creed continues with the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, and spoke by the prophets, followed by confession of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, one baptism for the remission of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

The author suggests saving the text to learn it and sharing it with someone who has asked what Orthodox Christians believe.