Early in 2000 I started as a student minister at Kurrajong Anglican Church, working under Sandy Grant in his first parish as rector. He blossomed early; I blossomed late.
Kurrajong met in the 1980s-era “Christian Education Centre” and the liturgy was printed on card-stock. But it had an old Blacket-designed rain shelter and, during my time there, they evicted the bats, reopened it and restarted a more traditional prayer book service. Out came the 1978 An Australian Prayer Book volumes that had lived on the shelves for a while.
Sandy’s predecessor, Neil Prott – a man I respect deeply and still speak of glowingly – had done something quite clever in the early days of home computers. He had typed the word universal in the right font size, printed it hundreds of times, cut it into little rectangles, and glued those slips over every catholic in the creed.
So the Apostles’ Creed now read:
“I believe in… the holy universal Church.”
At the time I honestly thought this was brilliant. Neil was ahead of his times, and I was a product of mine. It matched exactly how I saw the world back then, and it came from the same pastoral instinct my mother had when she explained to me as a kid that catholic meant all believers everywhere, not “Roman Catholic”, which is what my brother-in-law was.
So I have worked for, and still count as friends, senior ministers I esteem enormously who have led their churches to say holy universal Church instead of holy catholic Church. They have done it out of evangelistic and pastoral concern – trying not to put unnecessary stumbling blocks in front of visitors or newer believers.
This article is not a veiled rebuke of them. I once thought the “universal” solution was a stroke of genius myself. All I am doing here is explaining why, for my own conscience and teaching, I have become persuaded we should keep saying catholic and do the explaining work that goes with it.
Where “catholic” actually comes from
The English word catholic comes from the Greek expression kath’ holou or katholikos – “according to the whole”, “as to the whole”. In early Christian usage it means the whole Church of Christ – in all places and all ages.
By the early second century, Ignatius of Antioch can write:
“Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.”
He is not talking about Rome.
He is talking about the whole, worldwide people of God united to Christ.
So when the Apostles’ Creed says:
“I believe in the holy catholic Church,”
and the Nicene Creed says:
“We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church,”
they are using catholic in that sense:
There is one Church of Christ, made up of all his people in every age and place, gathered around the apostolic gospel.
Catholic here is not a denominational brand.
It is a doctrinal claim about the shape, scope, and unity of the Church.
Two different modern confusions
There are two main ways contemporary ears mis-hear that line in the creed:
- catholic = Roman Catholic
- universal = everyone is in anyway
We usually panic about the first and – in avoiding it – accidentally feed the second.
Confusion One: “Catholic = Roman Catholic”
This is the childhood problem:
“We’re not Catholics… are we?”
The fix is simple: catechesis.
Teach clearly that:
- catholic in the creed means all Christ’s people everywhere and everywhen
- Roman Catholic is one communion within that much bigger picture
That confusion is annoying but easy to fix.
My mother sorted it with one kitchen-table conversation.
Confusion Two: “Universal = Everyone Is In”
This one is far more dangerous.
When you quietly replace catholic with universal, many ordinary people hear something like:
“The Church, in some sense, includes everyone.”
And if the Church is universal, and God is love, and Jesus died for the world… then surely everyone is, at some deep level, included.
You are only a few fuzzy instincts away from a soft universalism, where:
- God becomes a vague, all-embracing vibe
- the Church becomes a religious nickname for the human family
- judgement language becomes something we rush past or apologise for
That is a far more serious drift than a child thinking catholic means Roman Catholic. The child can be corrected in a minute. Soft universalism can hollow out evangelism and holiness for decades.
This is why I now think “universal” is the riskier word.
Consistency check: We don’t white-out “apostolic”
In the Nicene Creed we confess “one holy catholic and apostolic Church”.
Nobody suggests pasting a sticker over apostolic just because there is a modern Apostolic denomination.
If someone is confused, we explain it:
- apostolic means “founded on and faithful to the apostles’ teaching”,
not “we go to the Apostolic church down the road”.
Same with hymns:
No one has ever stopped mid-song to edit “the Church of Christ” because there’s a Churches of Christ denomination. We all understood the difference.
So it is inconsistent to defend “apostolic” and “Church of Christ” but panic about catholic.
Same category of problem → same solution:
Keep the historic word and teach what it means.
Why “universal” is more slippery than “catholic”
On paper, universal looks safe.
In reality, it is far more leaky.
If you’re well taught:
“universal Church” = the worldwide body of believers.
If you’re not:
“universal” = everyone without exception.
Instead of hearing:
“all who belong to Christ throughout the world,”
people hear:
“the Church kind of includes everyone.”
This blurs the boundary between the Church and humanity as a whole.
When that boundary blurs, the biblical contrasts – Church and world, sheep and goats, forgiven and still under judgement – all go soft.
By contrast, catholic, properly explained, builds in the guardrails:
- it means all who belong to Christ across places and ages
- which implies some do, and some do not (at least not yet)
- which means the Church is bigger than my denomination, but smaller than the human race
“Catholic” is universal in scope, not in membership.
“Catholic” does NOT mean “everyone is saved anyway”
Nothing in the creeds teaches universalism.
When they speak of the catholic Church, they mean:
those who belong to Christ in every place and age – those united to him by the Spirit and holding the apostolic faith.
The same creeds say Christ will judge the living and the dead.
They speak of forgiveness of sins, resurrection, life of the world to come.
Judgement and “holy catholic Church” sit side-by-side.
So “catholic” is not smuggling in universal salvation.
It is naming the real people Christ has gathered to himself.
What we actually lose by replacing “catholic”
Quietly swapping it out costs us at least three things:
1. Historical honesty
The creeds say catholic.
The Articles say catholick.
The Reformers kept it deliberately.
Editing it out is low-grade revisionism.
2. A thick sense of the Church
“Universal” flattens into simple geography.
“Catholic” carries geography, history, apostolic content, unity.
3. A bulwark against soft universalism
“Universal” slides toward “everyone”.
“Catholic”, clearly taught, keeps:
The Church is as big as Christ’s flock, not as big as the human race.
Pastoral practice: keep the word, block the drift
So what should we actually do on Sunday?
Keep “catholic” and explain it.
“Small-c catholic means all Christ’s people in all places and all ages.”
Use “small-c” language out loud.
It helps people separate creed-catholic from Roman Catholic.
If you want a gloss, pair it — don’t replace it.
“The holy catholic – that is, worldwide – Church.”
Keep the original word.
Add the explanation alongside it.
Teach the boundaries clearly.
The same Christ who gathers a catholic Church also judges the living and the dead.
Hold those truths together.
If you’re in a context with deep ex-Catholic wounds, be gentle for a season.
But the normal practice should be:
keep the creed’s wording; do the catechesis; don’t white-out the awkward bits.
One line to keep in your back pocket
In the creeds, “catholic” means the Church is world-wide and age-wide — not that everyone is saved; the Church is as big as Christ’s flock, not as big as the human race.
After years of thinking “universal” stickers were a clever fix, I now want the glue taken off and the c-word put back on the page.
“I believe in the holy catholic Church”
is not a betrayal of the gospel.
It is a confession that the gospel has a real people —
scattered now, gathered in Christ, and one day gathered around him —
stretching far beyond my parish, but not swallowing the whole world.
Because in this line of the creed, that one little word — catholic — really is a word that matters.