The Tupelo Creed Explained
The Tupelo Creed is an affirmation of God as revealed in the Holy Trinity. It it is three parts, summed up in a fourth. It is void (hopefully) of any minor points that divide the Church Universal. It is void (hopefully) of contentious language, and attempts to be inclusive in gender by incorporating gender specific attributes to the appropriate persons of the Trinity.
I believe in God the Father,The Creator of all things in the Universe,
who called Israel to be His chosen people
to reveal Himself to a broken world:
The One, Eternal, Almighty God.
Here the person of the Creator is affirmed. His creative powers are still in effect, as he creates all things in the Universe, even that which is new. As we are on the treshold of interstellar exploration, we affirm that God is the God of other worlds, as well. God is put into historical context as we affirm his revelation to the Israelites, who God chose as the vessel by which the world would be brought back to Him.
I believe in Jesus Christ,
His only son, our Lord;
Who was sent by His father
to be born of the Virgin Mary
through the power of the Holy Spirit:
The One, Eternal, Incarnate God.
He lived and worked among us,
and taught us the ways of His Father,
that we might be adopted as His brothers and Sisters.
For our sake He submitted to Evil
and was crucified in Jerusalem, that He might take our sins from us:
the one, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice.
With our sins He descended into Hell,
and so removed them from us forever.
On the third day He rose from the dead,
victorious over Evil, Lord of lords, King of kings.
He called us to be His Church, the new Israel,
to complete the work of our Father.
He ascended into Heaven and reigns in glory
with our Father, to whom He calls us by name.
He will return to this world in glory to judge it,
And His Kingdom will be everlasting.
Here, we affirm that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, sharing equally with Him the Glory, Eternity, and Majesty of Divinity. No matter what one might think of Jesus in the historical context, this divine aspect may not be compromised, and so it remains intact in this modern Creed. He was the anointed One of whom the Prophets of Israel foretold. He was born by the power of God Himself of a wholly mortal mother, thus taking upon Himself the nature of both the Divine and Mortal, the Incarnate God, of both natures equally and indivisibly, neither of which diminishes the other. This Creed explains the logistics of God’s plan for salvation, as best that we mortals may comprehend it and explain it. During His earthly ministry He taught us so that we might understand God’s purpose for His Creation. Once we were able to accept God’s will over our own, he submitted Himself to that force which prevents us from doing this: evil. By so submitting Himself, He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future, and descended into Hell, the residence of sin and evil. As we mortals are not able to escape from Hell once death has occurred because of Original Sin, we were thus previously bound to Hell, as if in chains by which the evil one (who some call Satan) dragged us into his domain. God, however, is not able to be so bound. On the third day (in Jewish reckoning), he slipped through the chains of Hell and escaped, leaving behind our sins. Thus, we are free from sin and the result of sin, which is death. As such, Jesus became the one, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for our sins. No other sacrifice is required, nor could another sacrifice add to that offered by Jesus. It need never be repeated and remains today the only sacrifice by which we are removed from our sins. We Mortals are thus free to live into our calling as God’s Children, never to be bound by sin and death again. This is the Easter message proclaimed by the Church to the world. The freed Children of God are able now to continue the work of the original call to Israel, which is to bring the rest of the world to God, creating unity throughout the universe. In our ministry to the world, we are the New Israel, the Holy Church of God, with Christ as our Head. At the end of our ministry to the world, He will return to complete our work once and for all. (Only in Christ are we complete.) Then, his Kingdom, which exists now in our hearts and minds, and in Heaven with the Saints, will exist physically forever, and there will be no end to it.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The Lord and sustainer of life,
Through whom the Church is empowered and fortified:
The One, Eternal, Transcendent God.
On the Day of Pentecost, She was sent by the Father to give Life to the Church,
To keep His Promise: "I will be with you to the end of the world."
The Holy Spirit, present at the Creation of the Universe, and giver of life to what has been created, continues to empower the Church with the creating power of the Father. (The two complement each other: One creates, the Other gives life to it. So we say that The Holy Spirit proceeds from Him in the traditional Creeds.) The ministry of the Church is such that Her members must go to all corners of the world, in all sorts of conditions, even in conditions in which evil still holds its grip on the world. Regardless, even in these places, God is with Her. God transcends all places, conditions, and time itself. The Holy Spirit is referred to in the feminine. Creating is a traditionally masculine trait, but giving life is, by its very nature, a feminine trait, and so here, the Holy Spirit is referred to with the feminine pronoun. (Remember also that the Holy Spirit was the principle Divine actor at the conception and birth of Jesus into His earthly life, and childbirth is a feminine activity). On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent to the believers (women included this time), and the Church was born (again, life-giving, the realm of the feminine).
I believe in the Holy Trinity,
Eternal God, One in Three:
Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.
I believe in the holy catholic Church,
The Communion of Saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the dead,
And the life everlasting.
With the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity is revealed, the Godhead is complete. God is Eternal and One: Creator (the Father), Savior (the Son), and Sustainer (the Holy Spirit). With the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Church is born: One, Holy, and Catholic (ie: universal, relevant in all times and all places). Though the forces of evil (which will not accept defeat) attack its members, the Church is unhappily divided in the physical realm; yet it remains spiritually united and indivisible. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the faith remains unconquered. The Saints pass this faith on from generation to generation. Thus, each new generation becomes physical representatives of the Communion of Saints, which is the spiritual reality of the undivided Church. For the Glory of God, and with the Saints praying with us, we endure to complete the ministry of the Church until the end of this age. The ministry of the Church is this: that those who have not yet come to God may be united with Him. Sin is what prevents the completion of God’s Creation. Each person that renounces sin is one step closer to completion of the Church’s ministry, the reparation of a world broken by sin. When our work is complete, and Creation is wholly reunited with its Creator, Christ will institute the Kingdom originally intended by God at Creation. At that time, the dead in Christ will rise to be joined with Him at the Throne of God, and the Kingdom will last forever.
This is Catholic Faith in modern terms.
