There have been a lot of questions surrounding the Belhar Confession, and why there is a proposal to include it in the PCUSA Book of Confessions.  North Puget Sound Presbytery will consider this action at its next meeting, November 20, in Friday Harbor.  Three workshops are being offered to prepare minister and elder commissioners for the vote:

• Monday, November 1, 6:30pm – 8:30pm, First PC in Port Angeles
• Wednesday, November 3, 6:30pm – 8:30pm, Birchwood PC in Bellingham
• Thursday, November 4, 6:30pm – 8:30pm, North Creek PC in Mill Creek
• At the presbytery meeting 10:00 a.m., during the historical tour.

 I thought it might be good, however, to begin the discussion before the meeting, where we’ll have only 20 to 30 minutes.

It is a significant thing to include a statement like this in the Book of Confessions, alongside the Apostles’ Creed and the Westminster Confession.  The Book of Confessions is a self-defining document–it is a way that the PCUSA tells the world “who it is, what it believes, what it resolves to do.” 

So why this confession [Belhar] and why now?  It easy to read through it, and say, “yes, I agree with that.”  As a denomination, I think we can say we agree with the Dutch Reformed Church that “it is true.”  But agreeing with a theolgical statement is not a strong enough criteria for including it in our constitution.  How does this confession uniquely help define the PCUSA?  It comes from South Africa and the context of deep racial tension.  How does it apply to the American context of Presbyterianism?  We have a confession, C67, that addresses the issues of racism in America.  What does Belhar say that C67 does not?

It is interesting to me that the major theme of Belhar is unity–at first it refered to racial unity, but now is taken as “adminstrative unity” of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa–which has not achieved, in part due to disagreement over this confession.   Belhar comes from the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC, the non-white South African branch) and is offered as a unifying statement to the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCSA, the whites only branch) as they come together to form the United Reformed Church in South Africa (URCSA).

 The new URCSA has made it a prerequisite for the previously whites-only DRCSA to join the united denomination that all of its members adopt the Belhar Confession. Although the DRCSA is eager to join the new denomination, it has decided not to compel existing members to submit to the confession. The DRCSA had offered to compel only new members of the DRCSA to submit to the confession, and to request existing members to submit to it voluntarily, but this offer was rejected by the URCSA. The URCSA’s position was that all members of the DRCSA should be required to swear that the Belhar Confession is true, or face expulsion from the denomination

Thus the DRCSA has accepted the contents of the confession without provisos, at synodial level, but has decided not to adopt it as a formal confession of faith.  This stands in the way of a full reconcilation and union of the predominant white and non-white churches in South Africa

Apart from the URCSA, the Belhar Confession was also adopted by the United Protestant Church in Belgium

The Reformed Church in America (RCA) adopted the Belhar Confession as a fourth Standard of Unity (or confession; alongside the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort) at its 2010 General Synod, having adopted it provisionally in 2007.

The 2009 Synod of the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA) proposed to the 2012 Synod that the Belhar Confession be adopted as their fourth confession of faith.

The confession was also instrumental in the RCA’s efforts to found the Reformed Church in the Dominican Republic.

How might the PCUSA use this confession?  Is it important to show unity with the other Reformed bodies that have adopted it?  What message would our adoption give to the world?

I invite your comments.  What do you think about including the Confession of Belhar in our Constitution?

Dean Strong, Stated Clerk