General Assembly Resolution: Universal Footnote

 

In June of 2027, the Church of the Nazarene will be conducting its General Assembly.  The General Assembly is the supreme doctrine-formulating, lawmaking, and elective authority of the Church of the Nazarene. During past quadrenniums, I have presented to my district delegation, and through them to the General Assembly, a number of resolutions.  Some of them have passed and impacted the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene.  Some were amended.  Others were rejected. 

This year I have presented nine resolutions to my district delegation.  -  If you are a district superintendent or a delegate from another district, I would draw your attention to these and hope you might consider supporting them.  If you are not a ds or delegate, but you know a ds or delegate from a district other than SWID, please consider sharing these resolutions with your superintendent and/or delegates.

Note: Strikedthrough words are to be deleted from the current Manual. Underlined words are to be added to the current Manual. 

________________________________________________________________________________

HISTORICAL STATEMENT

  The Church of the Nazarene confesses itself to be a branch of Christ’s “one, holy, universal¹, and apostolic” church, . . .

 ¹ Universal is a clarification of the meaning of the traditional term catholic.  Its usage is not intended to separate us from the traditional marks of the Church, but rather, to clearly identify with those traditional marks.

 

701. BAPTISM OF BELIEVERS & 702. BAPTISM OF INFANTS OR YOUNG CHILDREN

 . . . “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Church universal¹ of Jesus Christ, the communion of saints, . . .

¹ Universal is a clarification of the meaning of the traditional term catholic.

 

 FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1. The footnotes seeks to clarify that we firmly stand within Christ’s Church. 

 2. The footnotes, further, seeks to clarify the actual meaning of the traditional word catholic.  It is no more a reference to the Roman Catholic Church than the word church is a reference to the Roman Catholic Church. 

 3. The change of language in the creed in our baptismal rituals brings those versions of the creed in line with the language in both, our Historical Statement, and the version of the Apostles Creed found in the Sing to the Lord hymnal.  This will help to avoid confusion during baptism for those churches that use the Apostles Creed from the hymnal.