The Creed as a Call to Unity

The Creed as a Call to Unity: Recovering the Meaning of “the Catholic Church”

When the early Christians confessed, “We believe in the holy catholic church,” they were not referring to a single institution, nor to what later became the Roman Catholic Church. The term “catholic” comes from the Greek katholikos, meaning “according to the whole” or “universal.” In its earliest use—found in second-century writings like those of Ignatius of Antioch—it signified the wholeness of Christ’s body across time, place, and culture. The “catholic church” was the full fellowship of believers united by faith in the risen Christ, wherever they might be found.

In the first centuries of Christianity, this phrase described a church that transcended boundaries. It did not mean uniformity of worship or governance but unity in essential truth: one faith, one baptism, one Lord. The Apostles’ Creed, like the later Nicene Creed, was crafted not as a political manifesto or institutional claim, but as a theological compass. It defined the core of Christian belief—God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and drew a line between the shared essentials of the faith and the secondary matters that could differ without division.

That ancient confession still has power today, precisely because it points beyond denominational walls. The “universal church” is not limited to one tradition but includes all who faithfully follow Christ and proclaim the Gospel of His grace. Whether they gather in an Orthodox cathedral, a Reformed chapel, a Pentecostal meeting, or a house church in the global South, those who confess Christ as Lord and live by His Spirit are part of that same holy, catholic fellowship. The creeds remind us that unity does not mean sameness—it means harmony amid difference, truth expressed through diverse voices that still speak with one Spirit.

Yet in our age, fragmentation and suspicion often replace the unity the creeds envision. Christians divide over interpretation, governance, and worship style, sometimes mistaking cultural or historical distinctives for the Gospel itself. To reclaim the spirit of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, the church must return to their original intent: to confess together what is essential and to hold secondary things in humility.

To uphold these creeds is not merely to recite ancient words but to embody their theology of oneness. The Apostles’ Creed anchors us in the simplicity of the faith once delivered to the saints; the Nicene Creed grounds us in the Trinitarian mystery that defines all true Christian belief. They are not relics of a bygone era but living symbols of a shared inheritance. When recited together by believers of different traditions, they become a declaration that despite differences of polity or practice, we are bound by the same confession of Christ crucified and risen.

Unity among denominations does not demand erasure of distinctives but alignment around the essentials of the Gospel. It means recognizing that no single tradition has the full measure of truth, yet together the Body of Christ reflects the manifold wisdom of God. Upholding the creeds is one of the most practical ways to remember that we belong to a faith larger than our own walls.

In a divided world, the church’s credibility depends on this witness of unity. When Christians learn again to say, with conviction and humility, “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church,” they reaffirm that the Spirit still gathers the scattered and reconciles the estranged. The creeds invite us to live out that unity—not as an abstract ideal but as a daily act of faith, charity, and shared mission.

True catholicity is not an institution—it is communion. It is the universal fellowship of those who confess Jesus as Lord, empowered by the Spirit to love, serve, and bear witness to the kingdom of God. To uphold the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, then, is to commit ourselves again to the unity for which Christ prayed: “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you.”

Only when we rediscover that unity of faith and love will the world see the full meaning of the word catholic: the whole, living body of Christ made one in truth and grace.