5,300-member Orlando First, Pennsylvania church affirm Confessing Church tenets
The Layman Online, March 29, 2001
The session of First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Fla., one of the largest congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA), has adopted a resolution of commitment to the Confessing Church Movement in the denomination.
Another session, representing Hasson Heights Presbyterian Community Church in Oil City, Pa., also notified The Layman Online that it has adopted a statement that focuses on some of the same issues that are spawning the emerging Confessing Church Movement.
Both First Presbyterian in Orlando, a 5,300-member congregation that has grown by more than 1,000 members in the last decade, and Hasson Heights, a 200-member congregation, affirmed the three essential statements in the Confessing Church Movement:
- That Jesus Christ alone is Lord of all and the way of salvation.
- That holy Scripture is the triune God’s revealed Word, the Church’s only infallible rule of faith and life.
- That God’s people are called to holiness in all aspects of life. This includes honoring the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, the only relationship within which sexual activity is appropriate.
The Orlando resolution expressed a commitment to the Confessing Church Movement and said, “[We] implore all Presbyterians who share these historic Christian convictions to:
- Renew their individual commitments to the above confessions.
- Urge their session and presbytery to affirm these confessions and to declare that they will not ordain, install or employ in any ministry position any person who will not affirm them.
- Urge the 2001 General Assembly to instruct the General Assembly Council to uphold these confessions and ensure that these confessions are followed faithfully in all programs and policies of the Presbyterian Church (USA).