	The Trinity The early Church underwent a very difficult process when it tried to define the doctrine of the Trinity. Early Christians experienced God in three ways (as Father, in Jesus the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.) But because of their Jewish faith, they knew that there was only one God. This posed a difficulty for the Christians: "How can we say Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God, and still believe that there is only one God?” They attempted to explain their experience in a way that brought together their knowledge of their tradition. It took the Church Fathers over 100 years to work out the doctrine of the Trinity. Many different explanations arose as to how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were related. The Church had to sort through these different explanations for the one that most correctly fit their experience and the writings of the New Testament. This was very difficult for them, and it is still difficult for us today. The Christian experience of God is three-fold. We experience God who is above us - the unknowable, unimaginable, limitless God. This is usually referred to as God the Father. We experience God with us - God who has become one of us at the incarnation of Jesus Christ and has walked the earth with us. This is God the Son. We experience God in us - the source of life, God revealing himself in us. This is God the Holy Spirit. It is important to remember that these are neat classifications, which ultimately put limits on God. This is a general analogy and may not be true in all situations.
There are two words which are important to define for this discussion of the Trinity. The first is essence. As defined in Webster's dictionary, the essence of something is "the intrinsic nature of anything; that which makes a thing what it is". When we ask the question, "What is it?", the answer would be the essence of that thing. We are humans in our essence. A parrot is a bird in its essence. A tree is a plant in its essence. God is God in His essence. We cannot know what God's essence is like. God's essence is unknowable. It is a mystery. God's essence is what makes God God. The second term is person. We all have an idea of what a person is, but this word is used in a specific way. A person is a specific subject. For example, Joe Smith is a person, who's essence is human. Persons are differentiated beings. In terms of God, we say there are three persons who make up the one Trinity - the Father is a person, the Son is a person, and the Spirit is a person. All are unique and distinct from the others. "When we ask, "Who is God?" we answer that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
What the Trinity Is. . . To understand what the Trinity is, we will look at the creed, which we recite every divine liturgy. We say in the creed we believe in one God. Very soon after, we begin to describe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarian thought is found in the creed. We will begin by looking at the distinct persons of the Trinity, and then looking at how they can be one. The Father "There is one God because there is one Father" writes Bishop Kallistos Ware. 1 The Father is the source of unity, in fact the source of being of the other two persons of the Trinity. The Father is the source of the essence of God. The other two persons of the Trinity are defined in terms of their relationship to the Father: the Son is *begotten, and the Spirit proceeds*. Just because the Father is the source for the other two doesn't mean that He is "older" or existed before the Son or the Holy Spirit. When we are talking about these relationships existing within God, we are talking about something that existed before time was created. God is not part of time - God exists eternally. God existed before He created time. Thus there is no concept of "older" or "existing before" or "after" for the persons of the Trinity. The Son What does the creed say about the Son? 1. He is the "only Son of God". He is a unique person. 2. It says that he is "begotten of the Father before all ages." This means the Father is the beginning of the Son. But that doesn't mean that there was a time when the Son didn't exist. The Son was begotten of the Father. What does "begetting" mean for humans? It means producing offspring who are of the same essence as we are (ie. humans produce human offspring.) Thus, the Son is the same essence as the Father. The Son is God, just as the Father is God. This is why we also say, "light from light, true God from true God . . . one in being (essence) with the Father. (We must remember too that ultimately, we can't understand how the Son was begotten.) The creed also speaks about the incarnation of the Son. The Son of God, as God, has existed for eternity, and is the one “through whom all things were made.” As Jesus Christ, the human being, the Son has a definite place in time and in history. This is the person we read about in the Gospels. The Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is not "an impersonal energy of God or some sort of 'power of goodness' or 'power of life' . . . Anything spiritual has to be 'someone,' a 'who,' and not simply a 'what.' The Spirit of God is not a vague, illusive, abstract power or force." 2 The Spirit is a person. The Father is the source of the other two Persons of the Trinity. Thus, the Son is begotten and the Spirit proceeds. This means that the Spirit originates from the Father. What we are talking about is the essence of God, not how God works in the world. The Spirit originates from the Father, and therefore has the same essence as the Father. The Spirit is therefore God, and is "worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son." The Spirit is also the giver of life. It is this same Spirit who spoke God’s word through the prophets. It is the Holy Spirit which fills the Church now and helps us to live life in communion with God.	The Creed In the early Church, people tried to find words to explain their experience of God. Many different explanations arose. To try to determine which were acceptable and which were not, the leaders of the Church met in councils. At the councils of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381), the leaders of the Church outlined the basic elements of our faith. We call this the creed: "I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father. Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son He is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen."
The Unity of God Each person of the Trinity has been described by the relationship that person of the Trinity has with the other persons of the Trinity. This is a reflection on the inseparability of the Trinity. The Trinity is one. "Since the being of the Holy Trinity is one, whatever the Father wills, the Son and the Holy Spirit will also. What the Father does, the Son and the Holy Spirit do also. There is no will and no action of God the Father which is not at the same time the will and action of the Son and the Holy Spirit." 3 What is the cause of the unity of the persons? Love. This love is a perfect love, which forgets self and is totally focused on the other. In this way, the love of the Trinity is self-emptying or kenotic. The persons of the Trinity forget about themselves and concentrate totally on the beings of the others. We can't even begin to imagine what this means, as the love we know as human beings is imperfect. "God is love." God is not alone. For all of eternity, God has existed as a relationship. "God would not be God without his Son and his Spirit. He would not be perfect, complete, and divine without them. He would not be the true God. This is a crucial revelation about God and the character of his divine reality, being, and life, because it tells us that God is not and could not be God ‘all by himself.’ It tells us that God would not be the superabundant, supra-essential perfection of virtue and life - that he would not be love- if he were alone in his divinity." A God who is alone could not be a perfect God. "He would be absolutely alone, absolutely isolated, absolutely self-centered . . . " 4. Thus to say that God is love means that there must be more than one person in God.
Wrong doctrines of the trinity: 1. To explain how the three could be one, some people have said that the Father is God alone and the Son and the Holy Spirit are creatures, made "from nothing" like angels, humans, and the world. This is wrong because the Son and the Holy Spirit are uncreated and divine, just like the Father. We say that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one essence. They are made up of the same "stuff", we could say. 2. Another attempt to explain the Trinity was that there is one God who appears in three forms to the world. Sometimes, God is the Father, other times God is the Son or the Spirit. God is one and we know God in three different ways. Again, this is a wrong understanding of the Trinity. We know from scripture that "in the beginning was the Word (the Son), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We know this is true of the Spirit too. The three are eternally distinct. (distinct does not mean separate) 3. Another way of explaining the Trinity is to say that the Father is one God, the Son is another God, and the Holy Spirit is still another God. Of course, we can see that this is wrong because this would mean that we believed in three Gods, not one God.
Dancing with God There is a visual image that can be used to describe the unity of the Trinity - that they dance around each other in an eternal dance of joy. If you think of the Hopak at the end of a Ukrainian Dancing Show, you may have an idea of what this refers to. The hopak is a very fast dance in which individual dancers show off their stuff, one after the other. There is constant motion. The music is very lively and joyful. The dancers are moving so fast that it becomes difficult to recognize one from the other. This dance is not a dance of two persons, but of many. In the same way, each person of the Trinity dances around the others constantly, energetically, eternally rejoicing in the "stuff" of the other. The best part is- we are invited to become part of this dance! We are called to participate in divine life. We are made in the image and likeness of God. We have learned that God exists as a relationship. As humans made in God's image, we are also created in relationship with God and one another. Thus we participate in the Trinity is two ways: 1. by communicating (communing) with God (ie. prayer, sacraments, etc.) 2. by communicating with our neighbours These two ways are interrelated. Our prayer life and relationship with God affects how we interact with others, and others influence our prayer life and relationship with God.

The Trinity

The early Church underwent a very difficult process when it tried to define the doctrine of the Trinity. Early Christians experienced God in three ways (as Father, in Jesus the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.) But because of their Jewish faith, they knew that there was only one God. This posed a difficulty for the Christians: "How can we say Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God, and still believe that there is only one God?”

They attempted to explain their experience in a way that brought together their knowledge of their tradition. It took the Church Fathers over 100 years to work out the doctrine of the Trinity. Many different explanations arose as to how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were related. The Church had to sort through these different explanations for the one that most correctly fit their experience and the writings of the New Testament. This was very difficult for them, and it is still difficult for us today.

The Christian experience of God is three-fold. We experience God who is above us - the unknowable, unimaginable, limitless God. This is usually referred to as God the Father.

We experience God with us - God who has become one of us at the incarnation of Jesus Christ and has walked the earth with us. This is God the Son.

We experience God in us - the source of life, God revealing himself in us. This is God the Holy Spirit.

It is important to remember that these are neat classifications, which ultimately put limits on God. This is a general analogy and may not be true in all situations.

There are two words which are important to define for this discussion of the Trinity.

The first is essence. As defined in Webster's dictionary, the essence of something is "the intrinsic nature of anything; that which makes a thing what it is".

When we ask the question, "What is it?", the answer would be the essence of that thing. We are humans in our essence. A parrot is a bird in its essence. A tree is a plant in its essence. God is God in His essence. We cannot know what God's essence is like. God's essence is unknowable. It is a mystery. God's essence is what makes God God.

The second term is person. We all have an idea of what a person is, but this word is used in a specific way.

A person is a specific subject. For example, Joe Smith is a person, who's essence is human. Persons are differentiated beings. In terms of God, we say there are three persons who make up the one Trinity - the Father is a person, the Son is a person, and the Spirit is a person. All are unique and distinct from the others. "When we ask, "Who is God?" we answer that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

What the Trinity Is. . .

To understand what the Trinity is, we will look at the creed, which we recite every divine liturgy.

We say in the creed we believe in one God. Very soon after, we begin to describe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarian thought is found in the creed. We will begin by looking at the distinct persons of the Trinity, and then looking at how they can be one.

The Father

"There is one God because there is one Father" writes Bishop Kallistos Ware. 1 The Father is the source of unity, in fact the source of being of the other two persons of the Trinity. The Father is the source of the essence of God. The other two persons of the Trinity are defined in terms of their relationship to the Father: the Son is begotten, and the Spirit proceeds.

Just because the Father is the source for the other two doesn't mean that He is "older" or existed before the Son or the Holy Spirit. When we are talking about these relationships existing within God, we are talking about something that existed before time was created. God is not part of time - God exists eternally. God existed before He created time. Thus there is no concept of "older" or "existing before" or "after" for the persons of the Trinity.

The Son

What does the creed say about the Son?

1. He is the "only Son of God". He is a unique person.

2. It says that he is "begotten of the Father before all ages." This means the Father is the beginning of the Son. But that doesn't mean that there was a time when the Son didn't exist.

The Son was begotten of the Father. What does "begetting" mean for humans? It means producing offspring who are of the same essence as we are (ie. humans produce human offspring.) Thus, the Son is the same essence as the Father. The Son is God, just as the Father is God. This is why we also say, "light from light, true God from true God . . . one in being (essence) with the Father. (We must remember too that ultimately, we can't understand how the Son was begotten.)

The creed also speaks about the incarnation of the Son. The Son of God, as God, has existed for eternity, and is the one “through whom all things were made.” As Jesus Christ, the human being, the Son has a definite place in time and in history. This is the person we read about in the Gospels.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is not "an impersonal energy of God or some sort of 'power of goodness' or 'power of life' . . . Anything spiritual has to be 'someone,' a 'who,' and not simply a 'what.' The Spirit of God is not a vague, illusive, abstract power or force." 2 The Spirit is a person.

The Father is the source of the other two Persons of the Trinity. Thus, the Son is begotten and the Spirit proceeds. This means that the Spirit originates from the Father. What we are talking about is the essence of God, not how God works in the world. The Spirit originates from the Father, and therefore has the same essence as the Father. The Spirit is therefore God, and is "worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son."

The Spirit is also the giver of life. It is this same Spirit who spoke God’s word through the prophets. It is the Holy Spirit which fills the Church now and helps us to live life in communion with God.

The Creed

In the early Church, people tried to find words to explain their experience of God. Many different explanations arose. To try to determine which were acceptable and which were not, the leaders of the Church met in councils.

At the councils of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381), the leaders of the Church outlined the basic elements of our faith. We call this the creed:

"I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father. Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son He is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen."

The Unity of God

Each person of the Trinity has been described by the relationship that person of the Trinity has with the other persons of the Trinity. This is a reflection on the inseparability of the Trinity. The Trinity is one.

"Since the being of the Holy Trinity is one, whatever the Father wills, the Son and the Holy Spirit will also. What the Father does, the Son and the Holy Spirit do also. There is no will and no action of God the Father which is not at the same time the will and action of the Son and the Holy Spirit." 3

What is the cause of the unity of the persons? Love. This love is a perfect love, which forgets self and is totally focused on the other. In this way, the love of the Trinity is self-emptying or kenotic. The persons of the Trinity forget about themselves and concentrate totally on the beings of the others. We can't even begin to imagine what this means, as the love we know as human beings is imperfect.

"God is love." God is not alone. For all of eternity, God has existed as a relationship. "God would not be God without his Son and his Spirit. He would not be perfect, complete, and divine without them. He would not be the true God. This is a crucial revelation about God and the character of his divine reality, being, and life, because it tells us that God is not and could not be God ‘all by himself.’ It tells us that God would not be the superabundant, supra-essential perfection of virtue and life - that he would not be love- if he were alone in his divinity."

A God who is alone could not be a perfect God. "He would be absolutely alone, absolutely isolated, absolutely self-centered . . . " 4. Thus to say that God is love means that there must be more than one person in God.

Wrong doctrines of the trinity:

1. To explain how the three could be one, some people have said that the Father is God alone and the Son and the Holy Spirit are creatures, made "from nothing" like angels, humans, and the world.

This is wrong because the Son and the Holy Spirit are uncreated and divine, just like the Father. We say that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one essence. They are made up of the same "stuff", we could say.

2. Another attempt to explain the Trinity was that there is one God who appears in three forms to the world. Sometimes, God is the Father, other times God is the Son or the Spirit. God is one and we know God in three different ways.

Again, this is a wrong understanding of the Trinity. We know from scripture that "in the beginning was the Word (the Son), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We know this is true of the Spirit too. The three are eternally distinct. (distinct does not mean separate)

3. Another way of explaining the Trinity is to say that the Father is one God, the Son is another God, and the Holy Spirit is still another God.

Of course, we can see that this is wrong because this would mean that we believed in three Gods, not one God.

Dancing with God

There is a visual image that can be used to describe the unity of the Trinity - that they dance around each other in an eternal dance of joy. If you think of the Hopak at the end of a Ukrainian Dancing Show, you may have an idea of what this refers to. The hopak is a very fast dance in which individual dancers show off their stuff, one after the other. There is constant motion. The music is very lively and joyful. The dancers are moving so fast that it becomes difficult to recognize one from the other. This dance is not a dance of two persons, but of many. In the same way, each person of the Trinity dances around the others constantly, energetically, eternally rejoicing in the "stuff" of the other. The best part is- we are invited to become part of this dance!

We are called to participate in divine life. We are made in the image and likeness of God. We have learned that God exists as a relationship. As humans made in God's image, we are also created in relationship with God and one another. Thus we participate in the Trinity is two ways:

1. by communicating (communing) with God (ie. prayer, sacraments, etc.)

2. by communicating with our neighbours

These two ways are interrelated. Our prayer life and relationship with God affects how we interact with others, and others influence our prayer life and relationship with God.