Nicene Creed in Anglican Eucharistic Liturgy

The Nicene Creed in Anglican Eucharistic liturgy is the principal conciliar creed appointed for use in the celebration of Holy Communion in many Anglican prayer books. In the Book of Common Prayer tradition it functions as a corporate confession of the Church's faith after the reading of Scripture and before the prayers and sacramental action of the Eucharist. Its regular use links Anglicanism with the wider catholic tradition while also serving a catechetical purpose within parish worship.

Historical place in the Prayer Book

The Nicene Creed entered English reformed worship through the first Book of Common Prayer of 1549, which retained a recognizable structure from the western Mass while translating the service into English. The creed was kept in the Communion office because it was already a settled part of Sunday and feast-day Eucharistic worship in the Latin rite. Its retention also signaled that the English Reformation did not reject the dogmatic teaching of the ancient councils concerning the Trinity and the person of Christ.

The 1552 Prayer Book revised the Communion office more sharply in a reformed direction, but the Nicene Creed remained. In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the creed is appointed after the Gospel and before the sermon and offertory. The people stand for it, emphasizing that the creed is not a private meditation but a public confession. This location gives the creed a transitional role: it answers the proclamation of the Epistle and Gospel and prepares the congregation for the intercessions, exhortations, and communion that follow.

Later Anglican liturgies have varied in wording and frequency, but the creed normally remains connected to the principal Sunday Eucharist and to major feasts. Some modern prayer books permit the Apostles' Creed in certain circumstances or allow the creed to be omitted at weekday celebrations, but the Nicene Creed continues to be the standard Eucharistic creed in much Anglican usage.

Theological significance

The creed is commonly called Nicene, although the form used in liturgy is associated with the expanded creed of the Council of Constantinople in 381. Its doctrinal center is the confession of one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and of Jesus Christ as truly divine and truly incarnate. In Anglican worship this confession is not treated as an optional doctrinal appendix to the Eucharist. It is part of the Church's act of praise, hearing, and response.

Anglican formularies have historically appealed to the ancient creeds as faithful summaries of biblical teaching. Article VIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles receives the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, and the Athanasian Creed on the ground that they may be proved by Scripture. This illustrates a characteristic Anglican pattern: conciliar doctrine is honored, but its authority is understood in relation to the witness of Holy Scripture.

The creed also expresses the ecclesial character of the Eucharist. The congregation says, or sings, a shared form of belief before approaching the Lord's Table. In doing so it identifies the local assembly with the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. The words concerning baptism, resurrection, and the life of the world to come place the sacrament within the larger Christian hope rather than treating communion as an isolated devotional act.

Liturgical use and ceremonial

In classical Prayer Book order, the Nicene Creed belongs to the portion of the Communion service sometimes called the Ante-Communion. It follows the lessons and Gospel, and is commonly said by minister and people together. In sung celebrations it may be chanted or set to music. Anglican ceremonial has not been uniform, but standing for the creed is widely observed because the text is a solemn confession rather than a prayer of penitence.

The creed's language has appeared in several English forms. Traditional Prayer Book worship uses the historic wording of the 1662 tradition, including phrases such as "being of one substance with the Father." Modern Anglican rites often use ecumenical English texts, sometimes rendering the same phrase as "of one Being with the Father." These differences are normally matters of translation rather than different doctrines.

In pastoral practice, the Nicene Creed teaches by repetition. Regular worshippers encounter the doctrines of creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, judgment, the Holy Spirit, the Church, baptism, and eschatological hope within the ordinary rhythm of Sunday Eucharist. For this reason the creed has remained important not only in formal theology but also in Anglican catechesis and parish formation.

References

• The Book of Common Prayer (1662), order for the administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion.
• The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, Article VIII.
• Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American Prayer Book. New York: Seabury Press, 1980.