confession of belhar Archives

Helping congregations and individuals get through election season

Posted October 20th, 2020

Around the time of national elections, the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell gets requests for resources of prayer and services of reconciliation. And Gambrell, the associate for Worship in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Theology & Worship, said it’s especially true this year during a presidential election as divisive as any in recent memory.

Addressing race and reparations

Posted August 10th, 2020

Last week the Special Committee on Racism, Truth & Reconciliation hosted conversations with the Rev. Dr. Mark Lomax, founding pastor of First Afrikan Presbyterian Church in Lithonia, Georgia, and Dr. William Yoo of Columbia Theological Seminary around race, church history and reparations.

Presbytery uses video to call for unity, reconciliation and justice

Posted June 5th, 2020

Staff and members of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery have used the PC(USA)’s most recently-adopted confession, the Confession of Belhar, in a new video designed to remember the victims of violence against persons of color, including Kentuckians Breonna Taylor and David McAtee, George Floyd of Minnesota and Ahmaud Arbery of Georgia.

PC(USA) celebrates the life of the Rev. Dr. Mary-Anne Plaatjies van Huffel

Posted June 2nd, 2020

Professor Mary-Anne Plaatjies van Huffel, former Moderator of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), died in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 19, from post-surgical complications.

Belhar: Living it out

Posted October 10th, 2017

Having first visited South Africa in 1984, when the struggle against apartheid was reaching a crescendo, I was overjoyed to be present at the 222nd General Assembly (2016) when, after nearly a decade of study and debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) formally embraced the Confession of Belhar and acknowledged its profound capacity to illuminate our calling as followers of Christ.