The ELCA’s alteration of the Nicene Creed was an attempt at ‘reconciliation’ with the Eastern Orthodox Church, but it masks the true source of division in the church.
E arlier this month, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) altered the core doctrinal statement of Christianity for the sake of “unity.”
At the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, members overwhelmingly approved a resolution to remove a clause from the Nicene Creed, the ancient profession of belief at the heart of Christianity. In a vote of 748 to 15, “following the unanimous recommendation of the Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Committee of the Conference of Bishops and the Church Council,” the “Filioque clause” was banished and an altered creed adopted.
Controversy around the Filioque — Latin for “and the Son” — has played a significant role in the history of Christianity. The Filioque refers to a contested tenet of Trinitarian theology — that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” While the clause was absent from the original Greek version of the Nicene Creed, it regularly appeared in Latin recitations (in keeping with local councils and liturgical norms) by the beginning of the Middle Ages.
As political and theological differences continued to grow between the Greek East and the Latin West, a schism loomed. Rome’s official inclusion of the Filioque in liturgical practices was an important catalyst of the Great East-West Schism of 1054.
For the past 1,000 years, nearly every Western church has recited the Nicene Creed with the Filioque. Until now.
After the ELCA’s monumental vote, a press release noted that “the assembly recited the Nicene-Constantinople creed, omitting the Filioque for the first time in the ELCA’s history.”
According to the leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the move was an endeavor toward ecumenicism with the Eastern Orthodox Church. The creedal edit was hailed as furthering unity, even though it distances the ELCA from most other Christian denominations in the English-speaking world.
This change was a long time coming. In May of last year, “The Joint International Commission on Theological Dialogue Between the Lutheran World Federation and the Orthodox Church” — a committee of theologians and church leaders — released a “Common Statement on the Filioque.” Together, they acknowledged that the Reformers, as members of the Latin tradition, inherited the Creed with the Filioque and “did not consider it problematic.” And yet the Lutheran World Federation suggested nixing the Filioque to “contribute to the healing of age-old divisions” between the Eastern Church and “our community.”
The ELCA released a new study guide on the “Joint Statement on the Filioque,” asserting that “recent developments in Lutheran-Orthodox relations present the possibility of continuing the journey toward reconciliation between Eastern and Western Christianity after nearly a millennium of church division.” (I assume all gathered sang kumbaya afterwards and shared stale coffee and donuts.)
One of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with more than 3.7 million members across 9,000 congregations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is also one of the most liberal — a reputation its current leader, Elizabeth Eaton, has solidified.
Eaton was first elected to serve as the ELCA’s presiding bishop at the 2013 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. As bishop, Eaton led the charge on “Future Directions 2025,” a strategic framework for leadership across the ELCA. The document asserts:
We are a church that does not view diversity as a barrier to unity. We recognize and will challenge dynamics of power and privilege that create barriers to participation and equity in this church and society — for women, people of color, minority ethnic groups, people with disabilities, people who are marginalized or living in poverty, and the LGBTQ community.”
The plan also calls for “advocacy and action on economic justice, racial justice, gender justice and climate justice.
Apart from her role as bishop, Eaton also serves as the “chief ecumenical officer” of the ELCA. She even has an ecumenical union at home, as she is married to an Episcopal priest. Further, Eaton earned her Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, a decidedly non-Lutheran institution.
The great irony in all this? The ELCA’s desire for Christian unity apparently doesn’t extend to any of the issues on which Christians more recently agreed but no longer do. The Eastern Orthodox Church does not allow the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopacy, for example. (The ELCA also tolerates gay marriage, transgenderism, and abortion. The Orthodox Church does not.)
The ELCA’s attempt at theological ecumenism with the Eastern Church masks the real source of division in Christianity today. Denominations that were once split by deeply held theological beliefs are now split solely down political lines.
Lutherans and Presbyterians once diverged over the substance of the sacrament of communion. Methodists and the Reformed Church sparred over the mechanism of salvation and the role of predestination. Episcopalians and Congregationalists differed radically on the role of sacred authority in the church. Today, these theological disagreements seem outdated, old-fashioned — cute, even. The ELCA’s effort to bandage over an ancient theological dispute veils the real dividing lines in the church.
In America — and across the globe — nearly every protestant denomination has split into progressive and conservative sub-groups. (The ELCA leans toward the left, while the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod leans right and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod leans even further right.) Anglicans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, etc., have all split along the same lines.
By nixing the Filioque clause, the ELCA is simply distancing itself from Western Christian denominations — especially those that emphasize the importance of tradition — rather than creating any real unity with the East.
While the work of finding theological common ground remains noble, heterodox social teachings will keep Christians apart.