Introduction to The Confession of 1967
As Presbyterians we have tenets expressed by the confessions of our church contained in The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). If we become ministers of word and sacrament, elders or deacons we take vows to do all of these things. Yet many of us are quite unfamiliar with these tenets. Though we are supposed to be instructed, led and guided by them in our lives and in our work. To aid in the continual formation of our shared faith we will begin exploring excerpts from The Confession of 1967 as part of our statement of faith.
The Confession of 1967 is built around a single passage of scripture: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…” (2 Cor. 5:19, NRSV). The confession addresses the church's role in the modern world by asking us to “approach the scripture with literary and historical understanding”. It is calling us to obedient action to social problems such as discrimination, nationalistic arrogance, and family and class conflict. It sees the life, death and resurrection and promised coming of Jesus Christ as the pattern for the church's mission today and calls all Christians to be reconciled to God and to one another. Without understanding all of our creeds and confessions would be equivalent to not reading and understanding the entire bible. We simply would not know the whole story.
In Christ,
Wendy Jewell
Co-chair of Music and Worship Committee