Christ Our Light Catholic Church - Loudonville, NY

From Deacon Dick

From our beloved contributor, brother, and friend, David Haas: I stumbled on this powerful "The Immigrants Apostles Creed," and adapted it slightly (I changed "I" to "we," and "kingdom" to "reign"). I think it is wonderful. Perhaps some of you might find this to be a vibrant profession of faith during these times:

 THE IMMIGRANT'S APOSTLES CREED

We believe in Almighty God,
who guided the people in exile and in exodus, 
the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, 
the God of foreigners and immigrants.

We believe in Jesus Christ, 
a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home,
who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.
When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate,
the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.
But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, not as a scorned foreigner, 
but to offer us citizenship in God's reign.

We believe in the Holy Spirit.
the eternal immigrant from God's reign among us, who speaks all languages,
lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

We believe that the Church
is the secure home for foreigners and all believers.
We believe that the communion of saints begins when we embrace all God's people, in all their diversity.

We believe in forgiveness, 
which makes us all equal before God, and in reconciliation,  which heals our brokenness.

We believe that in the Resurrection
God will unite us as one people, in which all are distinct and all are alike at the same time.

We believe in life eternal,
in which no one will be foreigner but all will be citizens of the reign
where God reigns forever and ever. Amen.

_{(Written by Rev. Jose Kuis Casal, the director of Presbyterian World Mission. He is an immigrant to the USA from Cuba. Icon image, Copyright © by Kelly Latimore.)}