In 1977 the One Hundred Forty-Seventh General Assembly of Cumberland Presbyterian Church voted to initiate a revision of Confession of Faith of 1883. The following year the One Hundred Forty-Eighth General Assembly appointed a committee of sixteen persons to implement the work of revision and the committee was given guidelines for its work. In addition to the committee to revise the Confession of Faith, the General Assembly appointed a panel of readers consisting of twenty persons to review the work of the committee and make suggestions before the proposed revision was submitted to the churches for study.
Recognizing that the Confession of Faith was used by both the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church invited the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church to participate in the revision. The One Hundred Fourth General Assembly of the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church appointed five persons to the committee, and a panel of readers. From this point forward work of revision was a joint effort of the two denominations. Each denomination appointed a co-chairperson from its committee membership.
The One Hundred Forty-Ninth General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the One hundred Fifth General Assembly of the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church adopted the principle that the proposed revision would require adoption by the general assemblies of both denominations before it would be sent to presbyteries for a vote of approval or disapproval.
The committee began its work by all its members studying and revising the doctrinal portion of the Confession of Faith. There were three primary objective references to guide the committee: (1) the Holy Scriptures, (2) the "Brief Statement" formulated in 1810 which contains the "four points" the founders of the church set forth as the departure from "hyper-Calvinism," (3) the articles of the Confession of Faith themselves. The articles of the 1883 Confession were, without exception, the beginning point in the formulation of the revision. In no case did the work of revision begin at some other point--as would have been the procedure had the general assemblies ordered the writing of an entirely new creed. Each article of the Confession of 1883 was tested by the Holy Scriptures, the historical context of the Church in 1883 and the present time, the development of the Church in general and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in particular from 1810 to the present, and the language usage which was current in 1883 and is current in the present.
By July of 1980 the committee had made its initial revision of the Confession of Faith, and submitted its work to the panel of readers for criticism and suggestions. Subsequently, changes which reflected the critique of the panel of readers were made in the initial draft of the doctrinal statements. The same procedure was followed with the Constitution and the Rules of Discipline being referred to the panel of readers in December 1980.
The committee submitted to the general assemblies of 1981 its draft of the Confession, the Constitution, and the Rules of Discipline for study and response by the churches at large. Responses were received from study groups, sessions, presbyteries, and individuals. Subsequently, the committee again revised its work in the light of these responses as a mark of its intention that the Confession of Faith be the work of the entire church rather than that of a committee. A similar procedure was followed by the committee in its revision of the Directory for Worship and rules of Order; these were submitted to the general assemblies in 1982 and, likewise, were accepted and referred to the churches for study and response.
By the Fall of 1982 the committee completed its work on the Confession, the Constitution, and the Rules of Discipline. In early 1983 it completed its work on the Directory for Worship and Rules of Order and submitted all these documents to the two general assemblies, which met concurrently in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1983. The two general assemblies met in joint session and heard the co-chairpersons of the Revision Committee make a presentation regarding the proposed revision. The general assemblies then reassembled, each in its own meeting place, and considered the work of the revision in a Committee of the Whole.
The General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church approved the work of the revision, which included the revised Preface, Introduction, the Confession, the Constitution, the Rules of Discipline, the Directory for Worship, and the Rules of Order and, by a vote of 112 for and 9 against, sent the documents to its presbyteries for a vote of ratification.
The General Assembly of the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church approved the work of revision which included the revised Preface, Introduction, the Confession, the Constitution, the Rules of Discipline, the Directory for Worship, and the Rules of Orders and, by unanimous vote, sent the documents to its presbyteries for a vote for ratification.
The returns from the presbyteries of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church were reviewed by its General Assembly of 1984, meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which declared the revised Confession of Faith to be adopted by the necessary three-fourths of the presbyteries voting affirmatively. The returns from the presbyteries of the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church were reviewed by its General Assembly of 1984, meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which declared the revised Confession of Faith to be adopted by the necessary three-fourths of its presbyteries voting affirmatively.
Each General Assembly formally declared the revision to be the Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
The Preface was updated by the Stated Clerks upon adoption of the Confession of Faith in 1984.
NOTE: In 1992 the name of the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church was changed to Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Contents America. This name change will be reflected in the pages that follow.
|
