As WRF members, you will be aware of the WRF Statement of Faith, a confessional document for the 21^st century, written by our Theological Commission and approved by the General Assembly of WRF.  In this article, I want to direct your attention to two books which contain the Statement of Faith.

The first book is the World Reformed Fellowship Statement of Faith in twelve languages.  At the inaugural General Assembly of the World Reformed Fellowship in Orlando, Florida in 2000, I proposed that the newly formed WRF could serve the Church by writing a new Confession of Faith for the twenty-first Century.  There were three reasons why I believed that this would be a useful project.

The first reason was that the members of the WRF were drawn from many nations and from many denominations and were using a whole range of confessional statements.  This included the Scots Confession, the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Canons of the Synod of Dort, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Savoy Declaration, and others.  At the same time, there was general agreement that we were all ‘Reformed’ in theology.  Since we were all Reformed, surely it should be possible to come up with a common confessional statement?

The second reason was the need for a confessional statement to address the issues the church is facing today.  All of our Confessions were written in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and were largely designed to state the Reformed faith as over against medieval Roman Catholicism and, in the case of the later ones, Arminianism.  None of the Confessions deal with the major issues which have faced the Church throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as Liberalism, Pluralism, and Postmodernism.  Nor do they address the major moral and ethical challenges of the 21^st century.

The third reason was that all of our Confessions were written in Western Europe, whereas the leadership in the global church has now moved to the southern hemisphere.  We agreed that it would be interesting to see what would happen when scholars from Africa, Asia, Australasia and South America joined with theologians from Europe and North America to engage in such a task.  European and American theologians have played a dominant role in the world church in recent centuries, it is imperative that we should now work together with theologians from the global south.

The final result was the WRF Statement of Faith but initially it was only available in English.  Now, however, with the help of scholars from a number of countries, this publication contains the Statement of Faith in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Afrikaans, Russian, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Korean and Chinese.

All of the royalties from this publication will go to the World Reformed Fellowship which sponsored it, so by purchasing a copy you will also be supporting the WRF.

The second book is the New Reformed Book of Common Order.  The original Reformed Book of Common Order was published by the National Church Association of the Church of Scotland in 1977 and the second edition was published a year later, in 1978.  The authors were concerned about the way in which successive Church of Scotland Books of Common Order were leading the Kirk away from its roots in Reformed theology and Reformed worship and wanted to offer an alternative.

Some time ago, I was asked by the committee of the NCA to undertake the writing of a new edition.  Having agreed to take the project forward, one of my conditions was that the team preparing the new edition should not be confined to the Church of Scotland, as was the original publication but should include a wider group of Ministers.  This was agreed and the final team was drawn from the UK and the USA, from eight denominations.  From Scotland, I was joined by the Rev D. Dominic Smart, the Rev Dr Malcolm Maclean, the Rev Dr Malcolm MacInnes, the Rev Bruce Rossetter and the Rev John Rushton.  From Ireland, the Rev Professor David McKay and from England, the Rev Dr Peter Naylor.  From the USA we were joined by the Rev Dr Derek Thomas, the Rev Dr L. Roy Taylor and the Rev Terry Johnson.

At the outset of the work, we discussed the differences between Knox’s liturgy from the 16^th century (on which the original RBCO was based) and the Directory for the Public Worship of God from the 17^th century. We recognized the value of both liturgical forms and agreed to take account of both in our work.  Knox’s liturgy was more elaborate, with the use of set texts, including the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed and the Gloria Patri, whereas the 17^th century English Puritan worship was more sparse and did not use responses or set prayers.  While seeking to provide a structured liturgy, it was agreed that, in addition to any written prayers, we should always leave sufficient room for the free prayer tradition.

Another decision concerned the language to be used in the revised book.  We were clear that we should use modern English and not the traditional language of the King James Version of the Bible found in the RBCO.  A principle of the Reformation was that Scripture should be put into the language of ordinary people to enable proper understanding.  To that end we decided to use 21^st century language in the liturgy and prayers and to use a modern English version of the Bible.  We decided to use the English Standard Version.

If you are a Minister or Pastor, or involved in leading worship, you will find this book helpful.  It contains the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.  In addition to suggested Orders of Service for Sunday worship, there are also services for baptisms, the Lord’s Supper, weddings and funerals.

The original RBCO contained Robert Murray McCheyne’s calendar of daily Bible readings.  We decided that this was a good idea, since it encouraged daily reading of Scripture.  We also wanted to include a summary of Christian doctrine and so we included the World Reformed Fellowship Statement of Faith.

You can purchase this book from the publisher, Wipf & Stock, or from any of the usual book purchasing shops and websites.  It is also available as an ebook from Amazon.  All royalties will go to the Highland Theological College in Scotland, which sponsored the publication.

The commendation on the cover was provided by Dr Ligon Duncan, Chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary.  He wrote: ‘I have been looking forward to the publication of The New Reformed Book of Common Order for many years.  My copy of the first edition, purchased during my postgraduate days in Scotland, is thoroughly worn, and has helped me through many weddings, funerals, baptisms, communions and more.  Pastors from the whole worldwide Reformed family will benefit from this resource in the conduct of their public ministry.’

I commend these two publications to you.

The Rev Professor A.T.B. McGowan is Vice Chairman of the WRF Board of Directors and Co-Chair of the WRF Theological Commission. Find out more about Professor McGowan here.