Letter from Louisville Volume 34, Number 6 Posted October 5, 2001 The Session Westminster Presbyterian Church 1820 Perryville Road Cape Girardeau, Mo. Dear Friends in Christ: Your letter, reporting an action taken on August 21,2001, presumably a response, at least in part, to actions taken by the 213th General Assembly, arrived in our offices earlier this week. I was asked to respond. While your three affirmations (“tenets”) are perhaps unexceptionable, it is also unclear, at least to me, what particularly useful confessional purpose they may serve. While you say that in adopting them you announce your commitment to the “Confessing Church Movement,” it would appear that you have made modifications to the affirmations put forth in another church in Pennsylvania and supported by the “Layman” In any case, they are paraphrases from selected texts of the Scriptures, not even quotations. Nor do they say anything not said in the Confessions of our church, nor ask anything more or different from what each of you as officers of the church have affirmed in your ordination vows. There is every reason to be glad that your session commits itself to live out lives in conformity with your affirmations, but the “Confessing Church Movement” seems to be more about crafting a litmus test for faith and faithfulness, than being about simply giving witness to the good news in Christ. If we need to write a new Confession of the church, there is a procedure for doing so, clearly expressed in Chapter XVIII of the Form of Government. Grace and peace, Zane K. Buxton Assistant Stated Clerk

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