The Nicene Creed in the Armenian Church - Pre-Chalcedonian, No "Filioque",

Note the "God of God" that is not present in the Byzantine version but is in the Latin rite; no "homoousios" ("of one substance"), the repetition of phrases to attest the dogma of the Incarnation (and the related clauses on the Ascension and Second Coming) and the elaboration of "who has spoken through/by the prophets". These augmentations of the Creed for the purposes of authentic teaching locally - are they Church-dividing, especially if the Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches and the Non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches are now broadly agreed on Christology? And since the Latin Roman Catholic Church repeatedly asserts that "filioque" addresses heretical distortions in the West and is meant to serve the faith of Nicaea-Constantinople and not alter it or nuance it, is the Latin version necessarily Church-dividing? If different versions in different liturgical traditions can be tolerated in the East, can they in West, especially when the Roman Church expressly recognises the Byzantine rite's Creed without "filioque" as confessing the same faith and vice versa?




We believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of God the Father, only-begotten, that is of the substance of the Father. God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten and not made; himself of the nature of the Father, by whom all things came into being in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate, became man, was born perfectly of the holy virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. By whom he took body, soul and mind and everything that is in man, truly and not in semblance.

He suffered and was crucified and was buried

And rose again on the third day

And ascended into heaven with the same body and sat at the right hand of the Father.

He is to come with the same body and with the glory of the Father to judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom there is no end.

We believe also in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated and the perfect, who spake in the law in and in the prophets and in the gospels. Who came down upon the Jordan, preached to the apostles and dwelt in the saints.

We believe also in the only One Catholic and Apostolic Holy Church.

In one baptism of repentance for the remission and forgiveness of sins.

In the resurrection of the dead,

In the everlasting judgement of souls and bodies, in the kingdom of heaven and in the life eternal.


See here for an explanation of the Creed and how it is used: The Armenian Church - Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin