posted on January 1, 2006 in News | Be the First to Comment | Print

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The church doctrine committee celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Faith Concerning Church and Nation recently while meeting at the national office. Adopted in 1955, the declaration says the church must denounce and resist all forms of tyranny. It also says that church and state are intimately related.
"Each is bound to aid the other according to its appointed power and functions, but neither is given any right thereby to attempt domination over the other," states the document. "We reject any doctrine which misconceives the Church as the religious agent of the State. We reject any doctrine which misconceives the State as the political instrument of the Church."
Rev. Stuart Coles, who served on the committee all five years of its development, was at the celebration. He urged the current committee (the church's "thinkers") to work with the social action "doers of our faith," when trying to solve today's challenges. "Our confession of faith does not belong in the attic, but is something to be done daily."
Coles said the church needs to bring its thinking into the present age. "We moved the clock forward from 1647, when the Westminster Confession was written, to 1950. How do we move it forward today?"
He would like to see a new document that addresses contemporary issues – particularly challenges surrounding money, finances and ethical investing, remarking that the dollar too often reigns supreme. – AM