What We Believe

A good place to start is the faith-statement called ‘A New Creed’

There’s a lot there, but it captures our beliefs pretty well–if not in the way you’d think.

This is a faith-statement used in our entire church–thousands of congregations across Canada–but one of the women in our own congregation was actually on the working-group that composed this ‘New Creed’ in 1968. So, it is a major statement of belief, yet it is also intimately connected with what the people of our church ACTUALLY believe. At Erindale, we are lucky enough to have one of the creators of this statement among us–and you can ask her about it any time. How often does that happen, in terms of your core beliefs about anything?

It does not sound like the ancient creeds of the church–nothing about the Virgin Birth, and so on–but neither does it try to replace them, change them, or take precedence. This fits our Church, because on any of the traditional points of belief you will find a whole range of belief in our congregation.

It changes with the times. The line about ‘living with respect in creation’ was added in 1994, because the times seemed to call for something to be said within our faith-statement.

It is popular, but not required. People like this ‘New Creed'. We use it fairly often in worship and on other occasions. But no one will ever test you on it or require it of you.

If you REALLY want to know what we believe, here it is: We believe that God will lead you by your own path, and at your own speed. Our experience tells us that you will probably come to like this ‘New Creed’ and some other things our church says and does, and adopt them as your own–with your own personal spin on them, of course.