For this project I want to look at free-floating contemporary creedal expressions, typically found on websites, blogs or in contemporary liturgical literature. After screening thirty to fifty sample creedal expressions I will select up to ten alternative creeds with potential for use in corporate worship. I will examine their theology and use the Apostle's Creed as a point of comparison.

My study will not focus on official ecclesiastical creeds but on grassroots products that were created either for use in worship or simply as individual expressions of faith.

In my study I will pay very close attention to shifting patterns of theology and belief. My hunch is that some parts of the traditional creeds (in my Lutheran tradition mostly the Apostle's and Nicene Creeds) have become less meaningful to contemporary worshippers while other aspects of emerging faith are hardly reflected in them.

Like many other liturgical practitioners I have written some of my own material, including a few alternative creeds. In this study I wish to add accountability to the practice and bring this subject to the attention of practical theologians, pastors and liturgists.

I will also conduct a field study among churches with traditional worship in South Eastern Pennsylvania. In a first step I will conduct individual interviews or group sessions to find out which parts of the Apostle's Creed are most meaningful to parishioners and which are stumbling blocks. In a second and later step I will present the same groups with one or two contemporary creeds and solicit structured feedback.

This study will lead to the creation of a website that will host the findings of my study and present a variety of newer liturgical material. The creeds posted on that website will be accompanied by a brief theological analysis and reasoning why this creed could be a nice alternative to the official and orthodox creeds of the church.