Someone sent me this “Immigrant’s Apostles Creed,” by the Revd. Jose Luis Casal.

I couldn’t resist, and wrote my own Nicene Creed version.

Bear in mind that this isn’t an authorised text of the creed – if you’re using it in worship, it should be used to supplement one of the authorised texts (some of which can be sung).

I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty,

maker of a heaven and earth without borders or nations,

who led his people from slavery to freedom

through exile and exodus,

the God of homelands lost and found,

the God of Temple and desert, of manna and sacrifice.

 

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,

and was made human, joining us as strangers and exiles on the earth,

teaching us to desire now a better country, that is, a heavenly one,

who was born under occupation and fled from his country’s genocide,

who suffered under the imperial power of Pontius Pilate,

was crucified by the state, dead, and buried.

On the third day he rose again, opening for us the door to new life,

destroying the power of death that denied us our birth-right as citizens of God’s Kingdom.

 

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son, unity in diversity, three in one.

 

I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church,

a communion of saints across countries and centuries,

united by the citizenship of baptism,

made equal by our need for repentance and our assurance of God’s mercy.

I look for the coming of the Kingdom of God,

where our passport is love,

our bodies are resurrected and healed,

the image of God in all of us is honoured,

and all nations and tribes and people will be reconciled in the place

where there is no mourning or sadness, no exile or despair,

and we will be no longer strangers or guests

but lambs gathered safely home in the arms of the Good Shepherd.

AMEN.