1. The Holy Trinity The Nicene Creed

2. God the Holy Trinity We are Baptized in the Name of the Father, and The Son, and The Holy Spirit. No one can be called Christian unless confess the faith in the Trinity. The Trinitarian Dogma is the most fundamental truth in the teaching of faith. We are Baptized in the Name, and not the names of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

3. God the Holy Trinity The revelation of God as a Trinity The Trinity is a mystery that can never be known unless God reveals it to us. The oikonomia (means Action) reveals the Theologia. And the Theologia (Theology) illuminates the oikonomia

4. God The Father The revelation of God as a Trinity God is called a “Father” by many religions = “father of gods and of men”. God is called a “Father” because He is the creator of the world. Also because of the covenant with Israel (His first Born). He is the Father of the King. He is the Father of the poor and the orphan and the widow.

5. God The Father By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: 1.God is the origin of all things 2.God’s goodness and loving care God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of the mother He is neither man nor woman: He is God He transcends human fatherhood and motherhood

6. The Revelation of God as The Trinity The Father revealed by the Son Our Lord revealed that God is Father not only in being Creator, he is eternally Father by His relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to His Father. “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” Mathew 11:2

7. The revelation of God as a Trinity For this reason the apostles confessed our Lord Jesus to be the Word “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” John 1:1 “the image of the invisible God” Col 1:15 “ The radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of His Nature” Heb 1:3

8. The revelation of God as a Trinity Following the apostles tradition, the Church in the ecumenical council at Nicaea confessed that the Son is HOMOOUSIOS = Consubstantial = Equal with the Father in the one essence

9. The revelation of God as the Trinity The Father and the Son revealed by the Spirit The First revelation of the Holy Trinity was in the Baptism of our Lord Our Lord on Holy Thursday spoke of “another Paraclete” whom He would send from the Father in His name “will guide them to all Truth” John 14:17 “Filioque” the procession from the son was gradually admitted to the Latin Liturgy between the 8 th and 11 th century leading to the great schism.

10. The revelation of God as the Trinity The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of Faith In Baptism In the liturgical Salutation “The Love of God the Father and the grace of the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” 2 Corinth 13:13, 1 Corinth 12:4-6, Eph 4:4-6

11. The Name of God Zoxapatri: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit Whenever we mention the name of the Trinity, out of deep reverence that is due to the Name, we bow down and make the sign of the Cross The sign of the Cross is our most fundamental declaration of faith

12. The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of Faith Terminology To articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the church had to develop its own terminology: i.“Substance”= “essence”= “nature” to designate the divine being in His unity ii. “Person” or “Hypostasis” to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them iii. “Relation” to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others

13. The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of Faith The Dogma of the Holy Trinity The Trinity is One: we do not believe in three Gods But One God in three Hypostasis (persons), the consubstantial Trinity” The divine persons DO NOT SHARE the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire

14. Explaining The Trinitarian Doctrine God

15. St. Basil “..for The Son is in The Father and the father is in The Son; since such as is the latter is the former, and such as is the former, such is the latter..” St. Basil Every title that belongs to The Father belongs to Him (The Son) except only unbegotten.. St. Gregory of Nazianzen

16. Who is St. Gregory of Nazianzen? The Theologos The writer of the Gregorian liturgy May be the most celebrated theologian by all apostolic churches.

17. St. Gregory of Nazianzen We should recognize that according to the teachings of the fathers, being or essence is notconfined only to The Father (Gregory of Nazianzen). It is dangerous to ascribe being only to the Father, mind only to the Son, and life only to the Holy Spirit. This will lead us to divide the divine essence into three essences

18. St Gregory and the allegory of the sun “..Again I thought of the sun and a ray and light. But here again there was a fear lest people should get an idea of composition in the uncompounded Nature, such as there is in the sun and the things that are in the sun. And the second place lest we should give Essence to the Father but deny Personality to the others, and make Them only Powers of God, existing in Him and not Personal. For neither the ray nor the light is a sun, but they are only effulgences from the sun, and qualities of its essence. And lest we should thus, as far as the illustration goes, attribute both Being and Not-being to God, which is even more monstrous…”

19. St Gregory and the allegory of the sun His Teaching on the Holy Trinity: I.God is incomprehensible in our Human Thought II.Hypostatic properties of the three Distinct persons of The Holy Trinity III.The eternal being of The Son and The Holy Spirit IV.Use of illustrations depicting The Holy Trinity will always have limitations V.The Three Hypostasies have One and the same Essence (consubstantial) VI.The Equality of The Three Hypostaseis VII.Sharing the same properties of Essence VIII.VIII. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone IX.Monarchy of The Father in The Holy Trinity (Patriki-archy = patrikh arxh ) X.The gifts of God are from The Father through The Son by The Holy Spirit

20. The Divine works “Oikonomia” “He destined us in love to be His sons” and “to be conformed to the image of His Son” through “the spirit of sonship” this plan is “grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” Ephesians 1:4-5, 9; Rom 8:15,29 The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons.