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Did You Know?
What Presbyterians Believe...
from PC(USA) Book of Confessions:
"Dealing with the Differences" (part 3 of 3)
f. The confessions are the church’s confessions. Therefore when a governing body of the church has ruled in favor of one over another alternative in the confessions, the consensus of the whole church should take precedence over the opinions of individual church members or groups of church members. Because individual members or groups who disagree with the consensus of the church sometimes may have a better understanding of Scripture and be more open to the guidance of the Spirit than the church as a whole, the church should listen to them respectfully, with openness to be reformed by them. But until such time as the church as a whole is convinced that it should change its position, its interpretation of the confessions should be considered authoritative.
g. So long as the church as a whole has not taken a stand on differences among the confessions, its ministers and officers should have the freedom to choose the confessional interpretation that they believe best reflects the witness of Scripture.
h. When there is no real consensus in the church, differences among the confessions should ordinarily be allowed to stand until such time as a genuine consensus is possible and necessary. Even if a bare majority were able to defeat a very large minority in voting for one option in preference to another, it would ordinarily be premature and dishonest for the church to claim, “This is what we Presbyterians believe.”
https://pcusa.org/sites/default/files/boc2016.pdf
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