United Protestant Church of France adopts a new Confession of Faith
The National Synod of the United Protestant Church of France has adopted a new confession of faith during its meeting in late May. The text (in English) is as follows:
In Jesus of Nazareth, God reveals his love for humanity and for the world. The United Protestant Church of France proclaims this together with the other Christian churches. Impelled by the Reformation our church announces the good news: God welcomes all human beings as they are, without regard for any merit. In this Gospel of grace, which is at the heart of the Bible, the Spirit of God makes itself known. This enables the Church to listen to the texts of the Bible and to be guided by them each day.
God created us, inviting us to live in trust with him. We betray this trust, and find ourselves now confronted with a world marked by evil and misfortune. But with Jesus, recognised as the Christ foretold by the prophets, a break with this is opened up: the reign of God is already at work amongst us.
We believe that in Jesus, the crucified and risen Christ, God has taken on evil.
Father of goodness and compassion, God inhabits our fragility thereby breaking the power of death. He makes all things new!
Through his Son Jesus, we become his children. He raises us up without ceasing: from fear to trust, from resignation to resistance, from despair to hope.
The Holy Spirit endows us with freedom and responsibility through the promise of a life that is stronger than death. The Spirit encourages us to bear witness to the love of God in word and in deed.
God cares for all his creatures. He calls us, with others who work for justice and peace, to hear the cries of distress and to struggle against all kinds of adversity: existential anxiety, social breakdowns, hatred of others, discriminations, persecutions, violence, overexploitation of the planet, denial of any kind of limit.
In the gifts which it receives from God, the Church draws upon the resources that allow it to joyfully live and accomplish its service: proclamation of the Word, celebration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as prayer, reading the Bible, living in community and solidarity with those who are most vulnerable.
The United Protestant Church of France believes that it is one of the faces of the universal Church. It attests that the truth on which its life depends always transcends it.
To the one who is love beyond anything that we can express or imagine, let us offer our
gratitude. “O give thanks to God, for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever!” [Psalm 118:1 (NRSV)]