And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 NRSVne
The historic Athanasian Creed describes the Trinity as the following:
We worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another. But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty. What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit. Uncreated is the Father; uncreated is the Son; uncreated is the Spirit. The Father is infinite; the Son is infinite; the Holy Spirit is infinite. Eternal is the Father; eternal is the Son; eternal is the Spirit: And yet there are not three eternal beings, but one who is eternal; as there are not three uncreated and unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited. Almighty is the Father; almighty is the Son; almighty is the Spirit: And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty. Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God: And yet there are not three gods, but one God. Thus the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord: And yet there are not three lords, but one Lord.
As Christian truth compels us to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords. The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten; the Son was neither made nor created but was alone begotten of the Father; the Spirit was neither made nor created, but is proceeding from the Father and the Son. Thus there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three spirits.
And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other; but all three persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the Trinity in unity and the one God in three persons. Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.
GCORR’s Statement on the Trinity
We believe that the Image of God found in the person of the Holy Trinity is Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive. We know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit under a diverse number of names springing forth from many cultures and languages. We are invited to become one with the Trinity, to add our diversity to theirs. Created in the image of God means that our diversity reflects this divine reality. Our cultures, ethnicities, sexual and gender understandings, our languages, our theological understandings, our family histories, our lived experiences, our education, the era in which we were born, all that makes us all a unique expression of the divine.
We believe that the image of God found in the person of the Holy Trinity is equitable. No person of the Trinity takes precedence over any other person. All persons of the Trinity are to be honored for who they are. All persons of the Trinity are seen to have an inestimable value and self-worth. All parts of the Trinity are indispensable and irreplaceable. As those created in this divine image, we are all seen as members of one body. We are invited to become one with the Trinity because God views us and wants us to view God and each other as being valuable, worthy, indispensable, and irreplaceable gifts to one another.
We believe that the image of God found in the person of the Trinity is inclusive and inseparable. They are not three separate divine beings but are one complete being that does not exist without the other persons of the Trinity. They are bound together within an unbreakable bond of love. We are invited to become one with them, to be embraced by this eternal bond of love, to allow our very being, our identity, and our lives to become intertwined with theirs. It is the nature of the Trinity to desire and to include others unto themselves. This is why the love of God for the world seeks to include “whosoever.” In the Trinity, all are included, and none are turned away. As those who reflect this image of God in our lives, we, too, are compelled to include others within our fellowship. We seek to include in our lives people from every economic class, every culture, every language group, every theological persuasion, every educational level, every gender, every sexuality, and people of every human variation.
Because we are created in the Imago DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), these are divine traits that we want our lives to exemplify. We repent from seeking to colonize others or to proselytize them. God does not want us to make others like us but wants them to embrace fully who they were created to be and to become. God desires not so much that we teach but for us to learn, not so much to speak as to listen. God does not want us to seek to control so much as set free. We are to learn to view the diversity in others as a divine gift that deepens our understanding of the rich nuances of God.
We feel a call to repentance because of the inequities we have fostered in the past and into this present moment. Being part of the fellowship of the Trinity is changing the way we view ourselves in relationships with others. Our focus is not on the changes needed in the lives of others but on the changes, we need to make in our own lives so that we treat others more and more equitably – not to value ourselves less, but to value the contributions of others more. We are seeking to nurture an attitude of gratitude for the lives of others and to more fully recognize the gift they are not only to our lives but to God.
As those who live as reflections of the Trinity in the world, we have good news to share that all are loved, included, and precious in the sight of God, just as they are. We are moved to repentance for all the times we have believed we should exclude others from access to the love of God. We have been racist, ablest, ethnocentric, classist, tribalist, nationalist, sexist, cis heteronormative, and parochial, and have believed we should exclude others from access to the love of God. As those who live as reflections of the Trinity in the world, we have good news to share that all are loved, included, and precious in the sight of God. We are called to join with the Holy Trinity to tear down all dividing walls so that we might all become one, just as the Trinity is one.
