Resources
You can download the statements from this website in pdf format here to use in your church or circulate to others:
- What is the Fellowship of Confessing Churches? [PDF]
- Confessing Churches Covenant [PDF]
- Key Aims of the FCC [PDF]
Part of the Church of Scotland
Far from setting up novel, rival standards of life and doctrine, we are calling on the Church of Scotland to return to its original and constitutive beliefs and documents.
We are part of the worldwide reformed church, and thus a body that adheres to reformed doctrines. We are, by definition, a confessional church, in our case expressed particularly in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Ecclesia Reformata, semper reformanda (always reformed, and always needing to be reformed) is the watchword of the Reformation church, and it is very realistic. Faced with a world at odds with his lordship, there is a constant danger for the church that we drift away from the true confession of Christ. Semper reformanda means ‘always being called back to that true confession’. The Holy Spirit leads us forward only as he leads us back: back to the true Christ of the Scriptures, back to the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
If you want to know what the Church of Scotland declares itself to believe in its constitutional statements, the excerpt below from the Articles Declaratory will provide a good start.
Excerpt from the Articles Declaratory
I. The Church of Scotland is part of the Holy Catholic or Universal Church; worshipping one God, Almighty, all-wise, and all-loving, in the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in substance, equal in power and glory; adoring the Father, infinite in Majesty, of whom are all things; confessing our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, made very man for our salvation; glorying in His Cross and Resurrection, and owning obedience to Him as the Head over all things to His Church; trusting in the promised renewal and guidance of the Holy Spirit; proclaiming the forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God through faith in Christ, and the gift of Eternal Life; and labouring for the advancement of the Kingdom of God throughout the world. The Church of Scotland adheres to the Scottish Reformation; receives the Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as its supreme rule of faith and life; and avows the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith founded thereupon.
II. The principal subordinate standard of the Church of Scotland is the Westminster Confession of Faith approved by the General Assembly of 1647, containing the sum and substance of the Faith of the Reformed Church.
The full text of the Articles can be read on the Church of Scotland’s website at www.churchofscotland.org.uk/extranet/xchurchlaw/xchurchlawarticles.htm#1
To read more regarding the Westminster Confession go to www.churchofscotland.org.uk/extranet/xchurchlaw/xchurchlawconfession.htm