A Statement of Faith : encouraging, but not dogmatic

by Jean-Marie de Bouqueney

translated by Sara MacVane

The work of unification among French Protestant churches to create the French Reformed Church (l’Eglise Réformée de France – ERF) in 1938, included intense discussions. The different churches, with different sensibilities had to dialogue, and often had to confront each other in order to arrive at a compromise. One of the important points of this compromise was that there would be a statement of faith, not a confession of faith. Well, you may say, you’re just playing with words. And while it’s true that our synods give rise to Byzantine discussions about punctuation and details, I believe that this compromise was full of insight. For in a language and by a process which were then up-to-date, this statement did not oblige anyone to sign on to a dogma. We hear it during the important moments of the life of the Eglise Réformée de France, specifically at synods and during significant services like the installation of a church council, recognition of ministries, etc. For my part, I am happy to use it for confirmations, since they mark the passage to adulthood and responsibility. I would summarize by saying that a statement of faith has more symbolic solemnity than a confession, for it is neither normative nor dogmatic, and it has a certain significance within the liturgy.

Our statement of faith gathers us around a common vocation: to witness to the Gospel in our own time. And indeed that is why we need to rewrite our statement of faith for our time. So, it is clear right at the start that it won’t remain unchanged for very long , because that is what it is all about, to speak to us today, not for all eternity. A statement of faith is modest and in this resembles us rather well. We have never pretended to define our faith once and for all. We just want to give voice to an ultimate reality which is well beyond our ken. So our statement of faith should help us focus on the essence of our theological journey. We are in search of God; we are not wardens of a single, imposed truth. We have to say out loud that religion is not per force another word for dogma or a way of avoiding controversy. At Evangile et Liberté, however much we may differ in other ways, we all believe that simplicity of expression is a fundamental value. An expression of faith may be audacious, but it is in any case relative, circumstantial, and limited to a particular time-frame. The statement of 1938 mentioned “the struggle against social scourges” and perhaps we should also include reference to contemporary events. This is a debate which will take place in the coming months with a series of articles on these questions.

There certainly are theological disagreements, but would anybody in 2017 really want the Church to be monochrome? In my opinion, the result would be both fundamentalist and insipid. These are two pitfalls we certainly want to avoid. Let our statement of faith have breath and let it joyously resound in our churches and at our synods. Let it be one that inspires us, not one that crushes us or discourages us. A confession of faith which comes already framed would be a pre-determined identity, a sort of pre-digested catechism. We will always prefer diverse statements of faith to closed identities, which are sometimes even fatal. So let’s give it some breath, just a little, or quite a lot, but let us never use it to exclude others.

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