Monday, February 8, 2016

Why the creed(s) in public worship?


Twenty-five years after releasing A Soundtrack for the Close of the Age with a simple, unadorned statement of "The Apostles' Creed" as the first track — probably the least successful marketing strategy of all time (of course, that was not the intent) — I ran across this statement that, better than I have ever been able to put into words, explains why the Creed deserved (and deserves) such a prominent place:
"A declaration of personal trust and allegiance is in reality a high form of worship; to recite a creed is no barren and dry test of orthodoxy; it is a loving outburst of a loyal heart, and a claim to receive the blessing promised to members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of heaven. The well-instructed Christian will on no account part with creeds as portions of public worship." — Bishop Harvey Goodwin, The Foundations of the Creed, p. 11; quoted in A. J. Worlledge, Prayer: The Oxford Library of Practical Theology, 2nd ed. (London, New York, Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1902), p. 73

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