Belhar Confession: Study Center
Introduction
In the year 2000, the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America invited its members and congregations to a decade of study and reflection on the Belhar Confession,  a confession of the Christian church in South Africa written out of the struggle against apartheid in the 1980s. Seven years later, in 2007, as a result of this ongoing effort, the General Synod voted to adopt the Belhar provisionally for two years, testing it "in worship...teaching...discernment...and confession," for possible approval in 2009 as a full confession of the Reformed Church in America.
The 2009 General Synod voted to adopt the Belhar Confession as a standard of unity. The decision needs to be approved by two-thirds of the RCA’s 46 classes, which will report their votes to the 2010 General Synod.
The resources on these pages can provide the church the opportunity to do exactly as General Synod requested: to study and use the Belhar in a variety of congregational settings, including worship; to dig more deeply into its content and meaning; and to ask how the Reformed Church in America might respond to the call of the Belhar to unity, to reconciliation, and to justice, especially in its focus on racism.
The resources are divided into the following categories:
Simply click on the category in which you have interest. If you don't see what you need, please let us know. Resources continue to be added to this page so please check back.
As a church, we have challenged ourselves to live with and to learn from the Belhar's themes of unity, reconciliation, and justice. As we become familiar with this first confession from the southern hemisphere, a gift from Reformed brothers and sisters in Christ, we must also ask whether the Reformed Church in America is ready to affirm the Belhar Confession as its own. Please join in this study.
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