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Reredos: The Apostles' Creed

  • Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
    who, though he was in the form of God,
       did not regard equality with God
       as something to be exploited,
    but emptied himself,
       taking the form of a slave,
       being born in human likeness.
    And being found in human form,
       he humbled himself
       and became obedient to the point of death—
       even death on a cross.
    Therefore God also highly exalted him
       and gave him the name
       that is above every name,
    so that at the name of Jesus
       every knee should bend,
       in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    and every tongue should confess
  •    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
       to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5–11, NRSV)

When the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Church in Philippi, he included what is probably one of the earliest declarations of Christian belief, or creed. Numerous creeds have been published during the two thousand years of the Church’s existence: in the early centuries by the Ecumenical Councils at which bishops gathered to debate doctrinal controversies, and later on by all manner of church and other organisations and individuals. 

The Apostles’ Creed written on one of the side panels of the reredos was probably written during the fourth century of the common era, and not by Jesus’ twelve apostles. 

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