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A Brief Statement of Faith (1983): The PCUSA's Modern Presbyterian Confession

Rev. C•D•F• Warrington, M.Div.
By Rev. C•D•F• Warrington, M.Div.

Ordained Minister, M.Div.

June 29, 2026

3 min read

modern confessions
A modern church sanctuary with warm light streaming through stained glass windows, representing contemporary Presbyterian worship and confession

In 1983, two streams of American Presbyterianism reunited after more than a century of division. The northern United Presbyterian Church in the USA and the southern Presbyterian Church in the US had been separated since the Civil War. Their reunion created the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and to mark the occasion, the new denomination commissioned a new confessional statement. The result — A Brief Statement of Faith — was formally adopted by the PCUSA General Assembly in 1991.

Origins in the Presbyterian Reunion

The Brief Statement emerged from a decade of careful drafting, debate, and revision. The task force charged with writing it sought a document that would be both genuinely Reformed and accessible to modern congregations. Unlike the Westminster Standards, it was not intended to serve as a comprehensive theological system but as a brief, liturgically usable confession that could be read in worship. The resulting document is 43 lines in its original form, deliberately compact and poetic.

A Trinitarian Framework

The Brief Statement is organized around the three persons of the Trinity. The first section confesses the Creator God, affirming that all creation is good and that human sin has broken our relationship with God and one another. The second section, the longest, addresses the work of Jesus Christ — his life, death, resurrection, and coming reign. The third section treats the Holy Spirit and the life of the church, including a notable emphasis on the Spirit's call to justice and the equality of all people in Christ.

Distinctives and Controversies

The Brief Statement reflects concerns prominent in late-twentieth-century mainline Protestantism: inclusive language, social justice, and ecumenical openness. It uses feminine imagery for the Spirit and emphasizes that Christ "calls us to work for justice" and "to care for all creatures." Some Reformed critics have argued that these emphases come at the expense of doctrinal precision on sin, substitutionary atonement, and biblical authority. Defenders counter that the document faithfully summarizes Reformed essentials in contemporary language.

Its Place in the Book of Confessions

A Brief Statement of Faith occupies a distinctive place in the PCUSA's Book of Confessions alongside the Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Scots Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Second Helvetic Confession, Westminster Confession of Faith, Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and the Barmen Declaration. As the only document written in the late twentieth century, it represents the denomination's attempt to speak its faith in a contemporary voice without abandoning its confessional heritage.

What the Brief Statement Teaches

At its core, A Brief Statement of Faith confesses the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ, the fellowship of the Spirit in the community of the church, and the hope of the coming kingdom. Whatever theological debates surround its composition, it gives PCUSA congregations a usable, corporate confession that can be spoken aloud in worship — connecting them to the ancient practice of credal confession while addressing the questions of a new era. In a denomination with few formal liturgical requirements, that is no small contribution.

Tags:modern confessionsreformedtheology

Frequently Asked Questions

What is A Brief Statement of Faith and when was it adopted by the PCUSA?

A Brief Statement of Faith is a confessional document adopted by the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1991, though its drafting process began in 1983 when the northern and southern Presbyterian streams reunited to form the PCUSA. It is one of the eleven standards in the Book of Confessions, which is the PCUSA's collection of authoritative confessional documents. The statement is intentionally brief—about thirty lines of verse—designed to be memorized and used in worship.

How does A Brief Statement of Faith differ from older Presbyterian confessions like the Westminster Confession?

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) is an elaborate, scholastic document of thirty-three chapters addressing every major locus of Reformed theology in systematic detail. A Brief Statement of Faith, by contrast, employs poetic, liturgical prose and gives prominent attention to the Holy Spirit, the created order, and the inclusive language of a twentieth-century ecumenical church. It reflects mid-twentieth-century ecumenical concerns and post-1960s theological emphases that were not part of Westminster's seventeenth-century Puritan context.

What does A Brief Statement of Faith say about the Holy Spirit?

The third section of A Brief Statement of Faith is devoted to the Holy Spirit and is notably expansive, describing the Spirit as the one who 'sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor,' 'calls women and men to all ministries of the Church,' and 'works in us and others for the renewal of the world.' This pneumatological emphasis reflects both the charismatic renewal movements of the late twentieth century and progressive Protestant commitments to social justice. The Spirit's work in creation, in the church, and in history receives fuller treatment than in older Reformed confessions.

Why did the PCUSA need a new confession in 1983?

The reunion of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (southern) and the United Presbyterian Church in the USA (northern) in 1983 created the PCUSA as a single denomination, and a new confessional statement was commissioned to mark this reunion and speak to contemporary questions. The church also wanted a document that could be used liturgically—unlike the Westminster Standards, which are primarily doctrinal reference texts. A Brief Statement of Faith thus served both a unifying ecclesiastical function and a catechetical-liturgical one.

Is A Brief Statement of Faith considered theologically Reformed?

A Brief Statement of Faith affirms the core Reformed commitments—the sovereignty of God, human sinfulness, justification by grace through faith, the authority of Scripture, and the missional calling of the church. Critics within the Reformed world have argued that it softens or omits key doctrines such as election and the penal substitutionary atonement that are central to the Westminster Standards. Defenders contend that it faithfully restates the Reformed tradition for a contemporary audience without abandoning its essential content.

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