threeness of God, the early church fathers and bishops developed language that seems esoteric to many ordinary Christians. They said that God is one ousia and three hypostaseis—one being or substance (sharing essential qualities equally) and three subsistences or persons (distinct in relations over against one another as well as distinct in missions in relation to the world). Any rejection of this basic trinitarian insight and affirmation (which lay behind and informed the Nicene Creed) necessarily