Creeds of Christendom

Vision Statement

The author was frustrated some years ago when looking for information on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of which he is a member. At that time he could find web sites for:

• Individual congregations and ministries,
• Outstanding Biblical resources which were beyond his capability to produce or maintain,
• Detailed information and criticism of every proposal being submitted to the General Assembly
  (most of which would never make it through that august body),
• BUT nothing on the accepted historic beliefs and distinctives of the P.C. (U.S.A.)
  Well, except for the "Brief Statement."

Early on, people began asking about other creeds Presbyterians don't have in their book and so a link was made to a second page on "The Creeds of Christendom." Before long these two pages became his magnum opus on the web in addition to a third page on the little town of Sistersville where he lived at the time.

The Current Vision for the Creed pages:

1. To have a one stop shop for Christian creeds and confessions.
2. Individual faith statements, those of individual congregations, cults or non-Christian groups are avoided here.
   Author's note: I have to admit these pages are unashamedly Christocentric and the choices are entirely subjective based on how I feel at 3:00 in the morning when I come across a link on the 400th reference from InfoSearch, Alta Vista or some other search engine.
   The pages are certainly not exhaustive, that is a distant goal not a reality. Just because a group does not appear here does not mean it is a cult or is considered non-Christian by the author. One need not have a written statement of faith to be Christian!
3. To annotate and cross reference the creeds to each other and to reference material concerning the historical characters, situations and heresies addressed.
   In general this has only been done so far with the introductory material to each creed but one or two on the "Presbyterian Creedal Standards" page do have a number of internal links to various cross references.
4. To avoid, in general, linking to creedal sites that have extensive back links to particular congregations.
   This is important, it is hoped this will encourage individual churches, colleges, seminaries, etc. to embed links to these pages without fear of advertising specific congregations or getting a lot of material which is not related to the creeds themselves. You will note that by and large even the author's own contributions other than this side page do not have such links or they are small and/or somewhat hidden.
5. These pages are not designed to be evangelistic yet there is a lot of good material here for serious seekers should they wish to pursue it and many of the creeds of course do contain biblical references for follow up.

Hopes for the future of these pages:

1. that others will help to find, enter and host creedal statements.
   The author has a very limited amount of server space available for all projects and has a strict policy of only providing links to statements when they are copywritten rather than posting them on the ISP server.
2. that others will make suggestions for good annotations and cross references and indeed perhaps provide the appropriate reference material to link to.

About the editor:

Sean Cooper, M.Div., Th.B., B.A.; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Rev. Anderson is currently a tent-making pastor with the St. Marys Presbyterian Church. In addition he has worked with several social service agencies in West Virginia and maintains a general computer service company focusing on the needs of Educational and nonprofit institutions. He is a CompTIA A⁺  & Network⁺ certified computer technician. 

In his lifetime Mr. Anderson has been a member of Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian congregations and has attended Baptist, Pentecostal and Presbyterian theological institutions. Early in his ministry he served with Operation Mobilization, an ecumenical mission overseas, working briefly in some 40 countries and got to see many faces of Christ's Church. During that time he worked with Christians of different nationalities and communions and discovered that while there were many different creeds there is indeed but:

"One body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." -- Ephesians 4:4-7

Return to the Creeds of Christendom

Updated: 3/3/2004