Presbyterians wrote these words a few years ago:
[The Church] has known missionary expansion throughout the world,
but also periods of dwindling resources and influence.
Christ is the foundation of the church,
therefore it will not fail despite our weaknesses.
We do not allow governments
to impose Christian faith by legislation,
nor should we demand undue advantages for the church.
The church must be free to speak to civil authorities,
neither claiming expert knowledge it does not have,
nor remaining silent when God’s word is clear.
Since every human being is made
for communion with God and others
we must treat no one with contempt.
Those words are from A Declaration of Faith, prepared by Southern Presbyterians in the 1970s and presented to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) in 1976 — 50 years ago.
The words are as relevant for Presbyterians today as they were in the past.
Although the Declaration was never added to the Book of Confessions of the pre-reunion PCUS (the old “Southern” church) or the post-reunion Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the general assemblies of both denominations endorsed it as “a contemporary statement of faith” and “a reliable aid for Christian study, liturgy, and inspiration,” according to the PC(USA) website.
As the son of the youngest member of the committee that wrote the Declaration (my dad is ruling elder and electrical engineer Paul Williams), I grew up with the document and those who wrote it. And 50 years after its publication, as our denomination prepares to receive and consider a new confession of faith in 2026, I invite all Presbyterians to check it out as a rich educational and liturgical resource.
History of the Declaration
In 1969, the PCUS General Assembly appointed a committee to write a new confession of faith and recommended a Book of Confessions be developed for the denomination (much as the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., the Northern church, had done between 1956 and 1967). The committee was chaired by Louisville Seminary’s President Albert C. Winn and included seven more ministers – Isaac Crosby, Shirley Guthrie, Wellford Hobbie, R. T. L. Liston, Patricia McClurg, Patrick Miller and James A. Wharton – as well as ruling elders Neil Davis and Paul Williams (my father).
After meeting about one and a half times per month for several years beginning in September 1969, the committee presented the completed document to the PCUS General Assembly in July 1976. That body endorsed the Declaration and sent it to presbyteries for consideration, but the Declaration fell short of the three-fourths of PCUS presbyteries required to make it part of the denomination’s newly adopted Book of Confessions.
Related reading: “A turning point in the church’s search for a new confession” by Harriet Riley, Outlook Reporting
In the post-reunion PC(USA), the 1985 and 1992 general assemblies similarly declined to add A Declaration of Faith to the Book of Confessions of the reunited church, but they endorsed the document as an appropriate educational and liturgical resource for Presbyterians.
Accessible, clear statements of Reformed doctrines
Fifty years after its original publication, A Declaration of Faith remains “a reliable aid for Christian study, liturgy, and inspiration.”
The authors of the Declaration sought to produce a statement of faith that focused on the biblical story, used first-person plural language (“we” and “our”) and included what the committee believed to be essential affirmations of Christian faith.
In its 10 chapters, the Declaration contains clear and accessible statements of traditional Reformed doctrines.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1 includes statements about the transcendence of God (“We do not fully comprehend who God is or how he works”) as well as God’s sovereignty (“God comes to us on his own terms”).
Those statements from section 2 of the first chapter also include the Declaration’s unfortunate tendency to ascribe masculine pronouns to God. In the years following the Declaration’s completion, some committee members, most notably Shirley Guthrie, expressed regret over their failure to use inclusive language when discussing God.
Don’t let that failure keep you from engaging this text.
Presbyterians who are considering ways to think of their faith in a multifaith world might benefit from these words:
God is at work beyond our story.
We know that God is not confined to the story we can tell.
The story itself tells us that God works [God’s] sovereign will
among all peoples of the earth.
We believe God works beyond our imagining
throughout the universe. (1.5)
Presbyterians who grapple with conflicting claims on their loyalty and devotion do well to heed these words:
We acknowledge no other God.
We must not set our ultimate reliance on any other help.
We must not yield unconditional obedience to any other power.
We must not love anyone or anything more than we love God. (1.6)
Chapter 2
Chapter 2, titled “The Maker and Ruler of All,” includes this statement that alludes to Reformed notions of predestination and election:
There is no event from which God is absent
and [God’s] ultimate purpose in all events is just and loving.
That purpose embraces our choices
and will surely be accomplished. (2.1)
Regarding the doctrine of creation, the Declaration asserts that “God made us to care for other created things” and that
The Lord expects us to produce, to consume, to reproduce,
in ways that make earth’s goodness available to all people
and reflect God’s love for all creatures. (2.3)
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 is titled “God and the People of Israel.” Presbyterians who are discussing the question of Israel and Palestine and other international issues would do well to consider these words from section 5:
The Lord still brings from oppressed and uprooted peoples
riches of insight and daring visions
that can judge and bless the world.
We can have confidence in God’s coming kingdom
even in the darkest times. (3.5)
Chapter 4
Chapter 4, “God in Christ,” includes several clear and accessible articulations of traditional theological concepts:
- The incarnation:
We affirm that Jesus was born of woman
as is every child,
yet born of God’s power
as was no other child. (4.1)
- The humanity of Christ:
He grew up in a family and a society
troubled by the common problems of the world.
His knowledge was limited
by his time and place in history. (4.2)
- The divinity of Christ:
We recognize the work of God in Jesus’ power and authority.
He did what only God can do. (4.3)
- Sin and atonement:
We also recognize the work of God in Jesus’ lowliness.
When he lived as a servant
and went humbly to his death
the greatness that belongs only to God was manifest. (4.3)
In his lonely agony on the cross
Jesus felt forsaken by God
and thus experienced hell itself for us.
Yet the Son was never more in accord with the Father’s will.
He was acting on behalf of God,
Manifesting the Father’s love that takes on itself
the loneliness, pain, and death that result from our waywardness.
Chapter 5
In Chapter 5, “God the Holy Spirit,” the Declaration addresses the complicated business
of being justified by grace through faith with these words:
We are responsible for our decisions,
but after we have trusted and repented
we recognize that the Spirit enabled us to hear and act. (5.3)
Presbyterians who seek to live responsibly in a culture struggling to address questions regarding diversity and inclusion might find reassurance in the following statement:
The Spirit moves among us not to end diversity or compel uniformity,
But to overcome divisiveness and bitterness.
The Spirit leads us to struggle against
the lines of race and class,
The ambitions of competing parties,
The loyalties to individuals and traditions,
that divide us. (5.6)
And then there’s this:
The Holy Spirit works beyond the church
even among those who suspect or scorn.
Chapter 6
Regarding the Bible, the Declaration notes that
The stories and traditions chronicled in the Bible were cherished, written down, and collected as the holy literature of the people of God.
In addition,
The people of Israel and of the early church preserved and handed on the story of what God had said and done in their midst and how they had responded. (6.3)
While not making any claims about biblical inerrancy or the miraculous inspiration of sacred texts, the Declaration “affirms our freedom to interpret scripture responsibly” and commits to using “the best available methods to understand [biblical texts] in their historical and cultural settings and the literary forms in which they are cast” (6.3).
Related reading: “The quest for a new confession” by Erin Dunigan, Outlook reporting
Chapter 7
Chapter 7, “The Christian Church,” includes essential insights about the origins of the church and our relationship with the ancient nation of Israel.
The followers of Jesus
remained at first within the people of Israel.
As persons from all nations joined them,
they were separated from the Jewish community.
Yet they continued to accept Israel’s story as their own
and to consider themselves part of the people of God.
We can never lay exclusive claim to being God’s people,
as though we had replaced those
to whom the covenant, the law, and the promises belong.
… We are bound together with [the Jews] in the single story
of those chosen to serve and proclaim the living God. (7.3)
Concerning other spiritual and religious communities, the Declaration acknowledges that “we do not fully comprehend God’s way within other faiths” and asserts that
We need to listen to them with openness and respect,
testing their words to us by God’s Word.
We should be loving and unafraid in our dealings with them. (7.4)
Presbyterians who are considering the relationship between the church and political institutions are reminded that
God rules over both political and religious institutions.
We must confuse neither with the kingdom of God.
We must not equate Christian faith with any nation’s way of life
or with opposition to the ideologies of other nations. (7.5)
Chapter 8
These statements from Chapter 8, “The Christian Mission,” remain relevant and inspirational for contemporary Presbyterians:
We worship God in the world
by standing before the Lord on behalf of all people.
Our cries for help and our songs of praise
are never for ourselves alone. (8.1)
God is at work here and now when people deal fairly with each other
and labor to change customs and structures
that enslave and oppress human beings. (8.3)
We must be willing to make such amends as we can
for centuries of injustice which the church has condoned. (8.3)
We believe God sends us
to risk our own peace and comfort
in compassion for our neighbors.
To those of us who are certain we know who is right and who is wrong about the religious and political issues of our day, the Declaration offers this reminder:
We must not limit our compassion to those we judge deserving,
for we ourselves do not deserve compassion from God. (8.4)
Chapter 9
Chapter 9, “Christian Discipleship,” reminds Presbyterians that
We need constantly to search out God’s way in scripture,
not expecting detailed directions for every decision,
but relying on the Word to tell us who God is,
to press God’s present claim upon us,
and to assure us of God’s grace and comfort. (9.3)
Chapter 10
The final words of A Declaration of Faith may be the best known and most quoted part of the document.
In Christ the new world has already broken in
and the old can no longer be tolerated.
We know our efforts cannot bring in God’s kingdom.
But hope plunges us into the struggle
for victories over evil that are possible now
in the world, the church, and our individual lives.
Hope gives us courage and energy
to contend against all opposition,
however invincible it may seem,
for the new world and the new humanity
that are surely coming.
Jesus is Lord!
He has been Lord from the beginning.
He will be Lord at the end.
Even now he is Lord. (10.5)
Fifty years after its publication, A Declaration of Faith remains a clear, poetic and relevant articulation of Presbyterian faith. I hope this little tour will encourage Presbyterian individuals and congregations to engage with it for themselves as we seek to live faithfully together in a changing world.
