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Charles West, PTS professor
emeritus of Christian ethics, reflects on the drafting process:
1) Production
“Our committee was a very interesting group, and we learned a great deal from
each other, theologically and practically, over the years.... Our task was to
write a new confession, but one person left the committee because he didn’t
agree with our formulation of that task. He said, ‘Our job is to define a
Presbyterian theologically’ and the rest of us said, ‘No! Our job is to ask how
we are to confess Jesus Christ in the 20th century.’ Then we asked, ‘What does
that mean?’ We decided that the theme would be reconciliation, and we went ahead
with that.”
2)
Circulation
“With three pastors and some professors on the committee, we knew, of course,
what issues would come up in local church discussions, and they did. But for one
year, we who were members of the committee went out among the churches and
presented the draft to the members to study. It was the most effective
theological education of the church that I ever participated in. People who had
always thought, ‘Oh, theology, that’s a subject for the experts,’ suddenly
realized that they were theologians, that theology really was an issue every
time they talked about the Christian faith. I mean, the light I saw in people’s
eyes when they suddenly realized theology mattered!”
3) Presentation
“We gave the General Assembly a draft in 1965; they commended it for the study
of the church and commissioned another committee to revise it in light of the
discussion. They sat in one room and we sat in another. They ran across the hall
and said, ‘How about making this change?’ We said, ‘Okay,’ and they ran back
across the hall to make it. This is a church document, and not just our
opinion.... But we tried to be specific enough, sharp enough, so that we would
confront some people, including ourselves.”
4) Adoption
“The confession took its final form in 1966 and was adopted by the General
Assembly, but in order for it to be constitutionally adopted, a majority of the
presbyteries had to approve it. So it went out again for discussion, and there
were some who were rigid, who wanted things said in a certain way. But I wasn’t
surprised when it was overwhelmingly approved.” |
