The following is a statement of faith that
we as Presbyterians have recently embraced
to reflect our faith and to guide us in
worship, learning and service.
A Brief Statement of Faith
In life and death we belong to God.
Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
we trust in the one triune God, the Holy
One of Israel,
whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ,
fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God:
preaching good news to the poor
and release to the captives,
teaching by word and deed
and blessing the children,
healing the sick
and binding up the brokenhearted,
eating with outcasts,
forgiving sinners,
and calling all to repent and believe
the gospel.
Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition,
Jesus was crucified,
suffering the depths of human pain
and giving his life for the sins of the
world.
God raised Jesus from the dead,
vindicating his sinless life,
breaking the power of sin and evil,
delivering us from death to life eternal.
We trust in God,
whom Jesus called Abba, Father.
In sovereign love God created the world
good
and makes everyone equally in God's image
male and female, of every race and people,
to live as one community.
But we rebel against God; we hide from
our Creator.
Ignoring God's commandments,
we violate the image of God in others
and ourselves,
accept lies as truth,
exploit neighbor and nature,
and threaten death to the planet entrusted
to our care.
We deserve God's condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to
redeem creation.
In everlasting love,
the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant
people
to bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry,
God delivered the children of Israel
from the house of bondage.
Loving us still,
God makes us heirs with Christ of the
covenant.
Like a mother who will not forsake her
nursing child,
like a father who runs to welcome the
prodigal home,
God is faithful still.
We trust in God the Holy Spirit,
everywhere the giver and renewer of life.
The Spirit justifies us by grace through
faith,
sets us free to accept ourselves and to
love God and neighbor,
and binds us together with all believers
in the one body of Christ, the church.
The same Spirit
who inspired the prophets and apostles
rules our faith and life in Christ through
Scripture,
engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism,
feeds us with the bread of life and the
cup of salvation,
and calls women and men to all ministries
of the church.
In a broken and fearful world
the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ
as Lord and Savior,
to unmask idolatries in church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom,
and peace.
In gratitude to God, empowered by the
Spirit,
we strive to serve Christ in our daily
tasks
and to live holy and joyful lives,
even as we watch for God's new heaven
and new earth,
praying, Come, Lord Jesus!
With believers in every time and place,
we rejoice that nothing in life or in
death
can separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Copyright © 1991
by the Office of the General Assembly,
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This document
is part of the Book
of Confessions, which is in turn Part
I of the Constitution of the
Church. Used with permission.
"In essentials unity; in non-essentials
liberty; in all things charity."
