Making Confessions became a feature of the Reformed tradition. It was often a costly one. Reformed identity was created by lives lived and lost in the process of writing confessions as well as by the words they contained. Confessions became symbol and memory as well as formulation. Yet, being Confessional became something that people went on doing - as in the Confessing Church in Germany in the 1930s.

Looking back we can learn from the faith involved in both the processes and the outcomes, but it is not always easy to know how subsequent generations ought to relate to the confessions of earlier years. Writing confessions while listening to varied voices in the church and thinking about how the reception of what we write can be positive rather than threatening, is one which less word-focused cultures are likely to think of as exhausting if not irrelevant. It is also of the nature of the case that confessions divide as well as unite, and it is not always easy to know what to do with the diversity generated by the process.

It is sometimes assumed that you can only write confessions in theologically settled and peaceful times. Although those are times when people most despair of working together to determine what the issues are and what they have in common, history would suggest otherwise. Those are the very times people neglect thinking carefully about the truth of God in Christ and the ways he should be worshiped and followed in mission. Today we are still writing mission statements and revising books of order and sorting who we are. The Confessors as well as the Confessions of the past still have something to teach us, and if our confessions are as much about spiritual wells as theological fences we may succeed in giving people words which enable us to affirm faith in Christ together in our time.

Links:

Bibliography

David Cornick,  Under God's Good Hand, 33-54.

Presbyterian Creeds and Confessions

Understanding the Confessions and Subordinate Standards of our Church - the Subordinate Standards Task Group 2002

Presbyterian Church (USA) Book of Confessions

Lukas Vischer, Recent Reformed Confessions of Faith, 1986.

Westminster Confession (Believe)

The place of the Westminster Confession in a Reformed Church.

    The historical context, and the need for the Reformers and then the Scottish Church to define themselves over against first of all the Roman Catholic Church, and then the Church of England, affected the content of the Westminster Confession, the Directory of Public Worship and the Shorter and Longer Catechisms, and the way in which they were used to answer the question not only "What sort of Church do we believe is agreeable to the Word of God?" but "What sort of church should the government of Scotland support?"

After 1690 the General Assembly in Scotland met again for the first time for 41 years. Following the restoration of the monarchy after the civil war, a time of persecution of covenanters and fresh moves by the monarchy towards Catholicism, the "Glorious Revolution" which brought William of Orange and Mary to the throne, England and Scotland were securely Protestant, but a new compact with the government about what sort of church Scotland would have was essential.  Before 1707 there was a shared monarchy with England, but not a shared parliament – the kingdoms have different sorts of churches and the attempts to unify them of the past century had only contributed to civil strife. The English bishops changed allegiance to the new King and Queen, but the Scottish Episcopalians refused. The Presbyterians in Scotland were prepared to be loyal to a Protestant monarchy, but they demanded a Presbyterian church, no bishops, and a General Assembly. The Confession and related documents were broadly acceptable and enabled the Assembly and the government to agree on a church in Scotland which would be moderate in tone, politically loyal, Presbyterian in government, and Reformed in theology.

If there are any parallels here to contemporary concerns, there are certainly some very important differences. There is not the same political urgency. We do not need to prove to the government what sort of church we are. However we still need to know what our core beliefs, processes and structures are and how they relate to other Christian traditions and the alternative organisational cultures affecting how we make decisions as a Church.

Some of the questions are:

The Church of Scotland has the following statement on its website regarding the Westminster Confession:

1. The Westminster Confession

Introduction

Currently, the Church of Scotland understands 'the Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the supreme rule of faith and life'. In the seventeenth century, this Church, with other branches of the Reformed Church, accepted the following statement as a 'subordinate standard', giving assistance in the correct interpretation of the Scriptures. There has been much debate in the Church recently, some believing that this document is now too 'time conditioned' to function adequately in the way required while others consider the Confession to be a vital bulwark of the Church's faith and indeed of its identity.

Although, however, the Westminster Confession retains its status, the General Assembly of 1986 declared that it no longer affirmed certain parts, indeed 'dissociated itself' from certain clauses and did not require its office-bearers to believe them. The General Assembly has agreed that ministers, deacons and elders at ordination have to assent to the Confession and its role, but, at the same time, it is made clear that this is a 'subordinate' standard (to Holy Scripture) and therefore open to challenge on the basis of further study of Scripture.

Here are the clauses that the Church no longer affirms (these are shown in italics in the main body of the Confession, below):

The General Assembly declare as follows:-

1.      This Church no longer affirms the following contents of the Westminster Confession of Faith:

Chap. 22, Section 7

‘Popish monastical vows of perpetual single life, professed poverty and regular obedience are so far from being degrees of higher perfection, that they are superstitious and sinful snares in which no Christian may entangle himself.’

Chap. 24, Section 3

‘… such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with Infidels, Papists or other idolators.’

Chap. 25, Section 6

‘He (the Pope of Rome) is Antichrist, that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.’

Chap. 29, Section 2

‘… so that the Popish Sacrifice of the Mass (as they call it) is most abominably injurious to Christ’s one only Sacrifice, the alone Propitiation for all the sins of the Elect.’

2.      This Church therefore dissociates itself from the above statements and does not require its office-bearers to believe them.

Updated: 23 May 2007. Revision of comments and inclusion of the Church of Scotland statement. John Roxborogh