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Our United Church of Canada is turning 100 in June of 2025. For the next little while, I will be using the last Friday Message of each month to tell you about the Church and what it is that makes us unique – not only in Canada but around the world.
I hope that you will enjoy learning about this United Church of ours.
Kathi
Statements of Faith
Almost any conversation about a Church leads to the question about what people in that Church believe. This is theology. Theology is simply thinking or talking about God or any question of faith. Most of us do that far more often than we realize. It doesn’t have to be complicated, dry, or academic. It’s about everyday life. The United Church from time to time restates its theology in order to address changing contexts. There are presently four statements that are recognized as doctrine.
As the three founding bodies of the United Church were preparing for union in 1925, they jointly drafted The Basis of Union to guide the process. It is considered to be the constitution of the Church. Within the Basis of Union is a declaration of religious belief, known as the Articles of Faith, which later became Twenty Articles of Doctrine.
The 20 articles outline what the United Church believed a hundred years ago. Each is a statement that begins “We believe” and they address an understanding of God, the Holy Spirit, the sacraments, prayer, and grace among other topics.
The articles were not intended for use during worship nor for instruction but were an attempt to refine centuries of Christian theology down to the basics. The 20 Articles give us the essentials. If we can look beyond the out-dated language, we can find a solid basis on which to build a personal faith, a faith in which we can live.
By 1940, Canada was experiencing social change at a staggering pace. Having come through the First World War and the Great Depression, the country was engaged in another global conflict that would shape our nation through a generation’s service and sacrifice.
That year, the United Church approved a new document, A Statement of Faith. The language was updated and the number of articles was reduced to 12 from 20. The preamble to A Statement of Faith says in part:
Christians of each new generation are called to state (the Church’s faith) afresh in terms of the thought of their own age and with the emphasis their age needs. This we have attempted to do for the people of The United Church of Canada - seeking always to be faithful to Scripture and to the testimony of the Universal Church, and always aware that no statement of ours can express the whole truth of God.
One of the ways that the United Church articulates its faith is through a written statement known as a creed.
Starting in 1925, the United Church used two historical creeds, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. By 1968 it was decided that the church needed something more accessible and criteria were published for writing a contemporary creed. The resulting document known as A New Creed was approved later that year.
A New Creed is a brief, well-loved affirmation of faith and in its original form began:
Man is not alone, he lives in God’s world.
It has been revised two times; in 1980 to remove masculine pronouns and replace them with “we,” and again in 1995 to include the phrase “to live with respect in Creation.” The creed is used often in worship and remains popular even 56 years after it was written.
The fourth faith statement is A Song of Faith. Adopted in 2006 it seeks to provide a verbal picture of what The United Church of Canada understands its faith to be in the historical, political, social, and theological context of the early 21st century. It is also a means of ongoing reflection and an invitation for the church to live out its convictions in relation to the world in which we live.
The beginning lines of A Song of Faith are:
God is Holy Mystery,
beyond complete knowledge,
above perfect description.
Yet,
in love,
the one eternal God seeks relationship.
So God creates the universe
and with it the possibility of being and relating.
God tends the universe,
mending the broken and reconciling the estranged.
God enlivens the universe,
guiding all things toward harmony with their Source.
Grateful for God’s loving action,
We cannot keep from singing.
You can read full versions of all four of our faith statements on the UCC website at
https://united-church.ca/community-and-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/faith-statements
Blessings, Kathi
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