It's that time of year again.
As some of you may know, every year my Confirmation Class studies the Creeds - the history and theology of the Nicene, Apostles, and Athanasisus, as well as those of other faiths.
After this time of study, they write their own Creed as an exercise of an experience in a community of faith; that is, how a group of people with diverse opinions and world views can come together to make a statement of belief that they can all say together without crossing their fingers too many times.
As some of you know, I believe my kids are positively brilliant. All of them. Every class. Every year. Because, well, they are.
To wit: We had a discussion about what to name our 'Creed'. We used to call it "The Creed of the Council of The Chathams" but of late, that ain't necessarily so. Our congregation now includes kids from the surrounding towns of Madison, Green Village, Florham Park, New Providence, Summit and even as far away as Gillette.
So, we've settled, in past years, for "The Creed of the Confirmation Class ___"
Not so with this class. They wanted something more . . . well, creative. So, one of them "googled" (I love how we make a verb out of a noun) and found that one of Latin terms used for confirmation is "formamentum." (I have no idea if that's correct. Sounds close enough for me. As I said, they wanted to be creative . . . BTW, how do you say "google" in Latin, I wonder?)
And so, ladies and gentlemen of faith, Christians near and far, I give you:
Credo Formamentum 2009
We believe in God who is watching over us, protecting us,
guiding us in our lives,
helping us to balance good and bad,
light and dark.
We believe God can be found in everything:
in the earth and sky,
the wind and rain.
We believe that God’s love for us is never ending.
We believe Jesus is the human messenger of God;
mortal yet divine,
Jesus is a healer –
A white light of hope
A friend when there is trouble
A helper when there is need.
He gave himself for us, a gift for our safe keeping.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
whom we experience in
ocean mist
clouds and fog
creativity and community
The Holy Spirit gives us inspiration.
We believe that anyone who is truly sorry
and seeks forgiveness
will be forgiven.
We believe that the church is a
House of God,
a base of worship
an Apostolic sanctuary which
unites us in community.
We believe that our souls live forever
even though the body dies.
God gives us the gift of eternal life
in Jesus.
We believe in God who is watching over us, protecting us,
guiding us in our lives,
helping us to balance good and bad,
light and dark.
We believe God can be found in everything:
in the earth and sky,
the wind and rain.
We believe that God’s love for us is never ending.
We believe Jesus is the human messenger of God;
mortal yet divine,
Jesus is a healer –
A white light of hope
A friend when there is trouble
A helper when there is need.
He gave himself for us, a gift for our safe keeping.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
whom we experience in
ocean mist
clouds and fog
creativity and community
The Holy Spirit gives us inspiration.
We believe that anyone who is truly sorry
and seeks forgiveness
will be forgiven.
We believe that the church is a
House of God,
a base of worship
an Apostolic sanctuary which
unites us in community.
We believe that our souls live forever
even though the body dies.
God gives us the gift of eternal life
in Jesus.
I love this!
ReplyDeleteI'm co-leading a Lenten study series with the rector at St. Stephen's Anglican in Calgary, AB, and this is just yummy!
We've been following the creeds as well for our adult education Lenten journey, and, on Wednesday, we're going to help people write their own creeds, so this is a fabulous example of one.
Thanks so much for sharing this!
My friend, Jim from VA, sent this in - jut in case you were wondering:
ReplyDeleteI submit the following for your consideration.
Latin is a gender specific language, although the
gender of the word does not necessarily reflect the
gender of what the word represents -- to wit:
farmer (typically male) is agricola, agricolae,
a word with feminine endings. Evidently the Romans
were not as hung up on issues of gender as are we.
With that in mind, I offer:
as a noun:
if feminine: googula, googulae
(nominative singular and plural)
if masculine: googulus, googuli
(nominative singular and plural)
as a verb:
googulo, googulare, googulavi, googulatus
respectively,
I google
to google
I have googled
I had googled
This is simply lovely and deeply moving. Thank you for sharing Elizabeth!
ReplyDeleteYou're right. They ARE brilliant. Thank you for being such a great teacher for these newest Episcopalians.
ReplyDelete