In 1983, our General Assembly devised a plan to form the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by joining the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Realizing the diversity and disagreement in the church, a brief statement of faith was written to identify the common identity Presbyterians share.
According to our Book of Confessions, The Brief Statement of Faith is distinctive in several respects. Unlike the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creeds, which move directly from Jesus’ birth to his death, this statement focuses on the significance of Jesus’ ministry in Judea and Galilee. This confession is gender inclusive and also emphasizes both the roles of men and women in God’s covenant by using feminine as well as masculine imagery of God, thereby affirming the ordination of both men and women. The Brief Statement of Faith is a Trinitarian confession in which the grace of Jesus Christ has first place as the foundation of our knowledge of God’s sovereign love and our life together in the Holy Spirit.
The Book of Confessions reminds us that no confession looks only to the past, rather every confession seeks to cast the light of a priceless heritage on the needs of the present moment, and in doing so shape the future. It may even reform the tradition itself in the light of the word of God. From the beginning, the Reformed churches have insisted that the renewal of the church must become visible in the transformation of human lives and societies. It also states that the church is not a refuge from the world. Rather an elect people is chosen for the blessing of the nations. Therefore the confessing church itself becomes the body by which Christ continues the blessing of his earthly ministry.