1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
At the intersection of theology and anthropology, this session will investigate the impact of the language Christians use for God.
In popular culture, the ancient Council of Nicaea is sometimes seen as a conspiracy to consolidate power. Some Baptist, evangelical, and nondenominational churches are resistant to creeds, and Christians who recite the Nicene Creed weekly or at least regularly in Catholic, Orthodox, and many Protestant traditions don’t appreciate the depth of the theology in what they are saying. Still, many theologians and historians hope that celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed in 2025 can unify global Christians.
How did early Christians understand and practice wealth in relation to worship/service and care of the poor?
Joining a racial justice pilgrimage in the American South helped a Canadian pastor see parallels to the experiences of Indigenous and settler peoples in his congregation. These insights are helping his church become more appreciative of God’s incarnation in Indigenous people.
The Black church has deep experience of suffering and being denied God-given and legal rights. As turbulent times affect more people, Jemar Tisby’s book The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance describes how Black Christians have kept the faith.
Jared Ortiz, professor at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, describes the Nicene Creed as a dramatic and powerful statement where every word is like a declaration of war, saying yes to the truth and no to many falsehoods.
Jane Williams, professor of theology at St. Mellitus College in London, England, sees the Nicene Creed, crafted 1700 years ago, as an extraordinary creative and exciting description of who God is and therefore what we trust in as Christians in God's world.
Maria Eugenia Cornou and Mikie Roberts serve on a planning team for an October worship event in Egypt to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the ecumenical creed that emerged in the year 325 and remains firmly embedded in the worship practices of the church today.
You don’t have to be Black or attend a predominantly Black church to celebrate Juneteenth with appreciation and respect. Many resources are available for your congregation to cosponsor or plan a God-honoring Juneteenth event or worship service.
Pastor and educator Rasool Berry hosted and coproduced the award-winning documentary Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom. He explains why US Christians of every race and culture can and should celebrate God’s work through people to announce and enforce freedom from slavery.
Through spirituals, freedom narratives, conversion accounts, and Black preaching, enslaved African Americans shared the embodied hope of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Like Paul, they proclaimed that the power of the cross of Christ should advance how the church participates in and quests for a more just and equitable world.
Probably every Christian knows that Paul preached about the power of the cross of Christ for personal salvation. But Christians often miss Paul’s discourse on the power of the cross of Christ to bring about social transformation. Reclaiming the full power of the cross should bring about unity and equality—in body, soul, mind, spirit, and voice—in the body of Christ and society.
