Use this litany adapted from the words of the Belhar Confession to profess your belief in the Belhar Confession’s message of unity, reconciliation, and justice in worship.
Litany Text
Leader: We believe in the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who gathers, protects and cares for the church through Word and Spirit.
People: This, God has done since the beginning of the world and will do to the end.
Leader: We believe in one holy, universal Christian church, the communion of saints called from the entire human family.
People: We believe that Christ’s work of reconciliation is made manifest in the church as the community of believers who have been reconciled with God and with one another.
Leader: We believe that unity is, therefore, both a gift and an obligation for the church of Jesus Christ.
People: We believe that through the working of God’s Spirit it is a binding force, yet simultaneously a reality which must be earnestly pursued and sought.
Leader: We believe that this unity must become visible so that the world may believe that separation, enmity and hatred between people and groups is sin.
People: We believe that anything which threatens this unity may have no place in the church and must be resisted.
Leader: We believe that true faith in Jesus Christ is the only condition for membership of this church.
People: Therefore, we reject any doctrine that absolutizes natural diversity in such a way that this hinders or breaks the visible and active unity of the church.
Leader: We reject any doctrine that professes that this spiritual unity is truly being maintained in the bond of peace while believers are alienated from one another and in despair of reconciliation.
People: We reject any doctrine that denies that a refusal earnestly to pursue this visible unity as a priceless gift is sin.
Leader: We reject any doctrine that maintains that descent or any other human or social factor should be a consideration in determining membership of the church.
People: We believe that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only head, the church is called to confess and to do all these things,
Leader: even though the authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and suffering be the consequence.
People: We believe that Jesus is Lord. To the one and only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be the honor and the glory for ever and ever.
David Alexander
David Alexander received a master of arts in theology from New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1980. He and his wife served as missionaries in Taiwan with the Reformed Church in America for nearly 40 years until their retirement in 2018.