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Appendix C-4: What it Means to Subscribe to a Statement of Faith

(Adopted by the General Assembly, 1969)

1) For a minister or office-bearer to subscribe to a Statement of Faith means the affirmation of the Christian faith as expressed and preserved in the Church by the historic creeds and confessions.

2) It must be clearly understood that while faith can be expressed in words it can never wholly be defined by words.

3) Therefore where any minister or office-bearer affirms a Statement or Confession of Faith he is bound by the faith expressed in the Statement or Confession rather than by the precise words themselves.

4) It will, however, belong to the integrity of every minister or office-bearer who makes such an affirmation that he will seek to enter as fully as he conscientiously can into the faith the words express.

5) The Church’s right to judge as to whether such faith as he confesses entitles him to holding office in the Church, and the procedure to be followed, is sufficiently set out in the Book of Order, Chapters 9-10.

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