| What does it mean to be a 'Presbyterian' church? |
|
What does it mean to be a 'Presbyterian' church? There's a short answer and a long one! The short answer is that a 'Presbyterian' church is a church governed by 'Elders' (Presbyterian comes from the Greek word for 'Elders', that is, wise and experienced ones!). In our tradition, the 'Minister' or 'Pastor' is one of a group of Elders (known collectively by an old Scottish term, the 'Kirk Session' which literally means 'church council'). So leadership is shared, rather than in the hands of an individual. The long answer is that to be 'Presbyterian' is to be part of the Reformed Catholic tradition which traces its roots right back to Martin Luther, John Calvin and the other 'Reformers' of the 16th Century. They realised that the church had lost its way, and called for a return to the teachings of the Bible. When they failed to change the church from within and were ejected, they reluctantly founded Reformed Churches. The Reformation then spread from Continental Europe to Scotland to Ireland, and we have been here ever since! Here in the Republic, Presbyterians were known as 'Dissenters' (because we 'dissented' from the Church of Ireland hierarchy). Presbyterians were discriminated against by the Penal Laws along with Roman Catholics, and have a long tradition of radical politics (Wolfe Tone and Henry Joy McCracken, for example, were Presbyterians!). So what do we believe? The Reformers summed it up using '5 alones', little catch phrases that sum up the teaching of the Bible - so we believe that God speaks through Scripture alone, that we can know him through Christ alone, by faith alone, through God's grace alone, and God does it all for his glory alone. These basic convictions are developed in documents like the Westminster Confession and Catechisms (which you can read at http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/ ) which our church holds to be a good summary of the teaching of the Bible. Dale Ralph Davis, an American Presbyterian, sums it up like this: the Bible is entirely true, sinners are perfectly sinful, God is really big, the cross is absolutely central, Grace is utterly incredible, disciples are continually secure and life is wholly holy! (see his book The House that Jesus built 11-19). Presbyterian churches also believe that local churches need to be accountable to one another. So our church family is part of what we call the Dublin & Munster Presbytery, a group of churches spread across Munster, Leinster and Connacht, which in turn is one of 21 Presbyteries which make up the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. So our church family is accountable to two higher bodies for what we believe and the way we do things. For more information, click on the Presbyterian Church in Ireland |