AN OVERVIEW
In the Presbyterian Church we shy away from simple statements of faith, believing that the work and love of God is too rich and wonderful to describe in simple ways. For that reason we do not have one single creed or confession. Instead, our beliefs are expressed in part one of the church’s constitution called the Book of Confessions. This book contains an assortment of important creeds and statements from across the whole two-thousand years of the church’s history. Some of these (the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed) are shared by nearly all of Christendom. Others are more unique to the Reformed tradition and emerge from its birth during the Reformation. These include The Scots Confession (1560), The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and The Second Helvetic Confession (1566). Others were written in times of extreme difficulty or change to address the need of the day, such as The Barmen Confession written in response to Hitler’s attempt to shape the message of the church.