Apostles' Creed in the 1928 BCP Catechism

Apostles' Creed in the 1928 BCP Catechism is the use of the Apostles' Creed within the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer Catechism. In that setting the Creed is not an isolated formula. It is the answer to the baptismal promise "that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith," the doctrinal center of preparation for Confirmation, and a compact confession of the Father who creates, the Son who redeems, and the Holy Ghost who sanctifies.

Catechism Setting

The 1928 Catechism identifies itself as instruction before Confirmation. Its first movement connects Christian naming, Baptism, sponsorship, personal obligation, and the Articles of belief:

A Catechism that is to say, an Instruction, to be Learned by Every Person before he be brought to be Confirmed by the Bishop.

They did promise and vow three things in my name: First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; Secondly, that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith; And Thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life.

The Creed then appears exactly where the Catechism turns from baptismal promise to confessed belief:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting. Amen.

The Catechism immediately interprets the Creed in Trinitarian form. It teaches the child to read the articles not as a loose list of doctrines but as faith in the one God known as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:

First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who hath made me, and all the world.

Secondly, in God the Son, who hath redeemed me, and all mankind.

Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the people of God.

This is why the Catechism is doctrinal and devotional at once. The Creed teaches creation, redemption, sanctification, the Church, forgiveness, bodily resurrection, judgment, and everlasting life; but it teaches them in the first person singular: "I believe."

Baptismal Confession

The Catechism's Creed section depends on the Baptism office. In the 1928 baptismal questions, belief in the Apostles' Creed is joined to renunciation, desire for Baptism, and obedience:

Minister. Dost thou believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed?

Answer. I do.

Minister. Wilt thou be baptized in this Faith?

Answer. That is my desire.

Minister. Wilt thou then obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of thy life?

Answer. I will, by God's help.

The adult form makes the same point with an added personal confession of Christ as Saviour and Lord:

Minister. Dost thou accept him, and desire to follow him as thy Saviour and Lord?

Answer. I do.

Minister. Dost thou believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed?

Answer. I do.

The Catechism therefore treats the Apostles' Creed as baptismal faith brought to understanding. The baptized person learns what was confessed, what was promised, and what must be ratified personally before Confirmation.

Offices of Instruction and Confirmation

The 1928 BCP also repeats and expands the Catechism in the Offices of Instruction. There the minister directly links the sponsor's promise to the public recitation of the Apostles' Creed:

YOU said that your Sponsors promised and vowed that you should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith. Recite the Articles of the Christian Faith as contained in the Apostles' Creed.

Then, all standing, shall be said the Apostles' Creed by the Minister and People.

The same office gives the pastoral discipline behind the Catechism. Children are to be instructed publicly, and competence in the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments is part of readiness for episcopal Confirmation:

The Minister of every Parish shall diligently, upon Sundays and Holy Days, or on some other convenient occasions, openly in the Church, instruct or examine the Youth of his Parish.

So soon as Children are come to a competent age, and can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments and are sufficiently instructed in the matter contained in these Offices they shall be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him.

This shows the ecclesial setting of catechesis in the 1928 book. The Creed is learned at home and in church, but it is not merely private memory work. It prepares the baptized for public renewal of baptismal vows, the bishop's laying on of hands, and admission to regular Holy Communion.

Article VIII and Scripture

The Articles of Religion printed in the 1928 BCP give the doctrinal warrant for receiving the Apostles' Creed:

VIII. Of the Creeds.

The Nicene Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.

This Article matters for the Catechism because it prevents two opposite errors. The Creed is not treated as a second source of revelation alongside Scripture; it is received because it is provable from Scripture. But the Creed is also not treated as optional devotional shorthand; the Church teaches it as the ordered summary of the Christian faith.

Michael Ferrebee Sadler, expanding the Church Catechism for clergy, parents, and teachers, makes the same distinction between faith as the soul's act of believing and "the faith" as the body of revealed truth:

It first means that power, or faculty, or virtue in the soul or spirit, which believes a thing to be true on God's word.

It means, secondly, that body of truth which God gives to us to be believed by us. (In which latter case it is usually designated "the faith.")

Sadler also explains why the Creed is used in worship as confession rather than as a prayer:

No; we use it as an act of faith.

Yes. St. Paul tells us so when he says, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Rom. x. 10.)

In this light the Catechism's "I believe" is both doctrine and worship. It gives words for the heart's trust and for the mouth's confession.

Historical Anglican Interpretation

Edward Harold Browne's exposition of Article VIII links creeds generally with baptismal confession, then explains why forms could vary while the apostolic doctrine remained one:

It seems generally admitted that the probable origin of Creeds is to be traced to the form or confession of faith, which was propounded to the Catechumens previously to their baptism. In the Scriptures such forms appear to have been brief. Our Lord commanded that men should be baptized "in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

Browne is careful about the name "Apostles' Creed." He rejects the late legend that each apostle contributed a clause, while still calling the Creed apostolic in doctrine and early ecclesial use:

But though this Creed was not drawn up by the Apostles themselves, it may well be called Apostolic, both as containing the doctrines taught by the Apostles, and as being in substance the same as was used in the Church from the times of the Apostles themselves.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere give the same liturgical history from another angle. In their account of Morning and Evening Prayer, the Apostles' Creed first belongs to Baptism and then comes into the daily offices:

The Creed belongs properly to the Baptism Service: it was taught beforehand to the catechumens as the symbol of the Church's faith and rehearsed by them in the hearing of the faithful at their baptism.

They also explain the Prayer Book reason for congregational recitation:

In 1552 this order and method was given up in favour of that now in use. The object clearly was to gain for the Hours a public recitation of the Creed by all, similar to that prevailing in the Liturgy.

This history clarifies the 1928 Catechism. The Creed remains baptismal in origin, scriptural in warrant, catholic in substance, and public in use.

Use in Worship

The 1928 Morning Prayer office requires the Apostles' Creed after the canticles, with a permitted explanatory substitution for "He descended into hell":

Then shall be said the Apostles' Creed by the Minister and the People, standing. And any Churches may, instead of the words, He descended into hell, use the words, He went into the place of departed spirits, which are considered as words of the same meaning in the Creed.

At Holy Communion, the 1928 book normally appoints the Nicene Creed but allows the Apostles' Creed, while requiring the Nicene Creed on the chief feasts:

Then shall be said the Creed commonly called the Nicene, or else the Apostles' Creed; but the Creed may be omitted, if it hath been said immediately before in Morning Prayer; Provided, That the Nicene creed shall be said on Christmas-day, Easter-day, Ascension-day, Whitsunday, and Trinity-Sunday.

The Catechism therefore serves the Church's repeated worship. A child who learns the Apostles' Creed for Confirmation is learning the same faith confessed in Baptism, Morning Prayer, and, where permitted, Holy Communion.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Catechism (1928 BCP)
• Offices of Instruction (1928 BCP)
• Confirmation (1928 BCP)

External Links

• Society of Archbishop Justus: 1928 Book of Common Prayer Catechism
• Society of Archbishop Justus: 1928 Offices of Instruction and Confirmation
• M. F. Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction (1872)
• E. Harold Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles (1883)