The Declaration of Faith concerning Church and Nation - Section 8

A Brief Commentary on
The Declaration of Faith concerning Church and Nation
A Theological Statement of The Presbyterian Church in Canada

Section 8: The Church’s Service to the State
The Church must not merge or confuse the Gospel with any political, economic, cultural, or nationalistic creed. At the same time the Church may not hold aloof from the affairs of the Nation, whether the authorities be of the faith or against it, for the Church must fulfil the ministry laid upon it by the Church’s Ruler Lord who became one with humanity for humanity’s redemption. The Church owes a manifold service to the State. The Church’s preaching, sacraments, and discipline confront the Nation with Christ’s judgment and grace. The Church offers thanksgiving and supplication to God on behalf of all people, with particular intercession for those in authority, praying that the overruling power of the Holy Spirit may fructify what is good and uproot what is evil in national and international life. In discharging the Church’s commission to evangelize the Church promotes righteousness and peace among people. As the Church’s Ruler may lay it upon the Church, the Church declares and commits itself to Christ’s will by public proclamations of the Church courts or agents. In fulfillment of the law of Christ, the Church engages in special work of Christian love. The Church’s members take full share as their Christian calling in commerce, politics, and other social action.

Commentary:
This is the longest section in the Declaration and has the most detail, as it highlights some of the contexts in which the Church is to live in public engagement with the State.
The Church as has been stated again and again is loyal first and foremost to Jesus Christ and to the living out in word and deed the Gospel message. In its engagement with the State, the Church must keep the Gospel message as heard and seen in Jesus Christ free from being linked to any human made policy, platform, or ideology. Thus, no political power, party, or institution can be named as being the bearer of the Gospel, or as worthy of the loyalty that human beings are to give to Jesus Christ the one who brings the Gospel. The Gospel message is distinct from and separate from all political or economic structures.

The equating of the Gospel with Canadian social values was an underlying theological heresy that produced the Indian Residential Schools. Church leaders linked the Church’s task to evangelize (bring the Gospel) with the State’s goal of Canadianizing. This danger is not just in the past, the risk of baptizing part of culture and absorbing that human made practice, pattern, or attitude into the gospel remains present today. When the church allows that to take place it becomes guilty of a form of colonialism.

The Declaration recognizes that while the leaders of the State may not share the Christian faith of the Church, that does not prevent the church from speaking to, engaging with, the State.

There are five tasks for the Church to be engaged in:
a. The Church through preaching, sacraments, and the discipline of mutual accountability within the Church, confronts the Nation (State) with the heart of the Gospel – the judgment and grace present in Jesus Christ.
b. The Church prays for all persons – notice not just the citizens of the State – but all persons. Especially for those who lead, that the Holy Spirit would bring to the fore that which is good and uproot what is bad. The political sphere is a garden and Christians plead with the Spirit to nurture what is good and weed out what is bad. Such prayer does not tell the Spirit what is good and what is bad, the Christian is to trust the Spirit’s discernment.
c. The Church is to evangelize, because to evangelize, bringing the Gospel message, is to promote God’s pattern of life and peace. A failure to evangelize is a failure to help the State and its citizens live into the life and peace Jesus Christ desires for all persons.
d. The Church is called to a prophetic role of making public statements to the State. These statements are the result of Jesus Christ calling the Church to such action. Such statements are rooted in the on-going work of the Gospel in the life of the Church.
e. The Church has a special responsibility to live out acts of Christian love. The development of hospitals, communities such a L’Arche, etc. flow from this public commitment to live out Christian love.

While the Church as the Church is not engaged directly in the political fray, members of the church maybe called to the political arena. But they are always to be aware that their first loyalty is to Jesus Christ, in this they guard against equating the Gospel with the platform of any political party. They engage as those who can hold Christ closer than their loyalty of any political or economic platform.