Dear Baptist Union Council Members,
2025 is the 1700th anniversary of the ecumenical Nicene Council of 325. This is being marked in several ways, both by the World Council of Churches and Churches Together in England.
The General Baptist 1678 confession known as the Orthodox Creed included the Nicene Creed in its statement of faith as one of three creeds that ‘ought thoroughly to be received and believed.’ It was also included in a 1680 catechism by a Particular Baptist Hercule Collins as a creed that 'ought thoroughly to be believed and embraced by all Christians.' More recently the Baptist Union’s Covenant 21 encouraged the saying of the Nicene Creed (or the Apostle’s Creed) as an affirmation of our faith.
For ecumenical reasons as well as those of Baptist identity, we propose that the Council at one of its meetings this year and at the Baptist Assembly in May take the opportunity to positively affirm our faith in the triune God, the person of Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and in the gospel story of salvation as they are confessed in the Nicene Creed. This would be one way of saying to our ecumenical partners and to one another as ministers, churches, associations and colleges we understand ourselves still today as a part of 'the great central stream' of the Christian Church and seek the unity that Jesus prayed for.
Your fellow Baptist sisters and brothers
Rev Dr Andy Goodliff, Lecturer, Regent’s Park College, Oxford
Rev Dr Anthony Clarke, Tutor, Regent’s Park College, Oxford
Rev Dr Myra Blyth, Former Baptist Union Deputy General Secretary
Rev Dr John Colwell, Former Tutor, Spurgeon’s College
Rev Dr Rob Ellis, Principal Emeritus, Regent’s Park College
Rev Dr Michael Bochenski, Former President, Baptist Union
Rev Dr Nigel Wright, Former President, Baptist Union
Rev Dr Sally Nelson, Lecturer in Pastoral Studies, Glasgow
Rev Carol Murray, Former Tutor, Regent’s Park College, Oxford
Rev Dr Craig Gardiner, Tutor, Cardiff Baptist College
Rev Dr Chris Ellis, Former President, Baptist Union
Rev Dr Paul Goodliff, Former General Secretary, Churches Together of England
Rev Geoff Colmer, Former President, Baptist Union
Rev Dr Keith Jones, Former Baptist Union Deputy General Secretary
Rev Prof Paul Fiddes, Principal Emeritus, Regent’s Park College
Rev Dr John Claydon, Former Regional Minister Team Leader, Northern Baptist Association
Rev Dr Julian Gotobed, Tutor, Westcott House, Cambridge
Rev Dr Tim Judson, Lecturer, Regent’s Park College, Oxford
Rev Ewan King, Heath Street Baptist Church
Rev Ashley Lovett, Lead Chaplain, University of Portsmouth
Rev Jeff Jacobson, West Leigh Baptist Church
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