A STATEMENT OF FAITH

I remained a Baptist as long as I did because of my understanding that the primary Baptist principle was the insistence that each individual had the right to interpret their own conscience.

As such, Baptists were traditionally opposed to the imposition of any creed, and viewed any statement of faith as tentative and non-binding.

That said, it has been a long time since I came across a statement of faith that spoke to me.

But I recently found one formulated by the Christ Church Presbyterian of Burlington, Vermont, back in 2006, that leaves me breathless. It is entitled Somewhere Beyond Belief: A Statement of Faith and I share it with the permission of their Session.

                 Somewhere Beyond Belief: A Statement of Faith

Somewhere beyond belief, our hearts know...
That God is the breath of love within us, between us,
  the intimate mystery beyond us, holding us,
  the Creator, our Creator.

  That God's Creation is essentially good, no matter how hidden
  that goodness may be.

Somewhere beyond belief, our hearts know...
That in Jesus we glimpse God and what God would have us be:
  loving extravagantly, demanding justice,
  fully present, welcoming to all,
  citizens in the Kingdom of God,
  here and now.

That Jesus is known in paradox,
  comforting and challenging,
  clear and confounding,
  historical, present today, and ahead of us,
  deeply personal and beyond our grasp,
  human and divine,
  peacemaker demanding justice, upsetting the old order.

Somewhere beyond belief, our hearts know...
That the heart of our community is around and on the communion table,
  the table where everyone belongs, where everyone is welcome,
  where we see the Christ in each other,
  where we are filled up and poured out,
  where we gain strength for the journey.

That we are called to help create God's New Realm in this world
  collectively and individually, led by the Spirit,
  to love it into existence,
  to announce that it is already here,
  to inspire, to help others see it,
  to be Christ's body and to do God's work.

Somewhere beyond belief, our hearts know...
That the journey is long, that the journey is good,
  that answers lead to questions, deeper and deeper,
  that God's grace carries us
  now and forever...

http://www.christchurchburlington.org