Affirmation: The Church Community (Belhar Confession)

The Belhar Confession was developed as a faithful response to racial apartheid in South Africa. Originally written in Afrikaans, it was adopted into the PC(USA) Book of Confessions in June 2016. The following is excerpted and adapted from the longer confession.

We believe in the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who gathers, protects and cares for the church through Word and Spirit. This, God has done since the beginning of the world and will do to the end.
We believe that Christ’s work of reconciliation is made manifest in the Church, as the community of believers who have been reconciled with God and with one another;
that unity is, therefore, both a gift and an obligation for the Church of Jesus Christ.
We believe that this unity of the people of God must be manifested and be active in a variety of ways: in that we love one another, and that we experience, practice and pursue community with one another.
We believe that the variety of spiritual gifts, opportunities, backgrounds, convictions, as well as the various languages and cultures, are by virtue of the reconciliation in Christ, opportunities for mutual service and enrichment within the one visible people of God.
Jesus is Lord. Amen.

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