범교회 및 범종교 관계

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has long advocated for positive relationships with people of other religious traditions and to follow Christ’s command to “… love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Religious plurality has become an issue of prime importance in North America as communities across the country are welcoming greater religious and cultural backgrounds. The implications of loving our religious neighbors as ourselves must pervade all areas of our life together.

The PC(USA) has adopted nine spheres of life in which interreligious understandings are challenging us and need to be acted on by the people of God.

• Human Needs — hunger, natural disasters, poverty, and disease.
• Social Justice — such as forced migration, human rights violations, unjust imprisonment, militarism, and totalitarianism.
• Mission and Evangelism — dialogical interreligious conversations promote the virtues of mutual respect and understanding.
• Conflict — too many of the world’s conflicts have a religious component and is used by government and non-governmental groups to justify war.
• Families — challenges arise for interreligious families as they work through divisions over religious beliefs and how to raise children.
• Education — articulate a broader definition of education that includes, and values lived experiences to engage people.
• Communities — many non-Christian, non-white, non-Western backgrounds often experience discrimination based on religion/culture.
• Congregations — diversity of culture creates challenges as children develop friendships and relationships with those from a different culture.
• Workplace — people can create an environment of respect and love for co-workers of other religions.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) belongs to ecumenical councils and agencies to live into our call to make visible the unity we have in Christ, including:

• World Council of Churches
• World Communion of Reformed Churches
• National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA
• Churches Uniting in Christ
• Christian Churches Together

Ecumenical Dialogue

Dialogues are designed to heal and address old divisions and differences or to develop a mutual understanding and truth. All dialogues are with the prayer and hope of moving Christian churches and communities closer to visible unity, tearing down dividing walls, seeking reconciliation, and manifesting the wholeness that God intends for the Church and the whole of Creation. This leads to deeper understandings of our shared Christian faith and genuine respect for one another, both hallmarks of unity.

Reformed-Catholic Dialogue

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been in conversation for more than 40 years and continues to look for new ways to provide a path for future conversation.

Presbyterian/Episcopal Bilateral

Having had common roots in Britain, as well as in the colonies, and being generally of similar socio-economic and educational levels, Presbyterians and Episcopalians have engaged in conversations toward unity on and off since the 1890s.

Full Communion or Covenants

As a result of past dialogues and prayerful discernment, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has entered into full communion or covenants with particular denominations. The PC(USA) is in full communion covenant relationship with:

Full Communion

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Reformed Church in America
• United Church of Christ

Covenant

• Covenant Relationship Korean Presbyterian Church Abroad
   - view the Covenant Agreement
• Moravian-Reformed Covenant Partnership 
   - view the Covenant Agreement

The Book of Order affirms the ecumenical commitment of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), particularly in Chapter Five: Ecumenicity and Union. This section outlines our relationships with other denominations and holds that the basis of these relationships is to give visibility to the unity that exists in Christ.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has authorized and directed the formation of covenants, agreements, and statements of purpose with other Christian bodies that address, among other things, the mutual recognition of baptism and the orderly exchange of ministers. Such agreements are said to place us in correspondence with one another.

The PC(USA) is in a relationship of correspondence, meaning the church maintains a relationship with the highest council or governing body with the following:

• Churches with which the PC(USA) had had historical relations outside the United States, as recognized by the General Assembly.
• Churches that are members of the ecumenical bodies in which the PC(USA) holds membership. These ecumenical bodies include Christian Churches Together, Churches Uniting in Christ, National Council of Churches, World Communion of Reformed Churches, and World Council of Churches.    
• Churches with which the PCUSA has formal ecumenical dialogue approved by the General Assembly. 

Full Communion Partners

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in full communion with those churches so recognized by the General Assembly. These relationships exist as a matter of ecumenical agreement. 

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Reformed Church in America
• United Church of Christ

Resources

The following information provides guidance when a mid council is in discernment about calling a non-PC(USA) minister/pastor. For mid councils calling a non-PC(USA) minister, refer to the Book of Order (G.2.0505), Transfer of Ministers of Other Denominations, for instructions on  how a calling body should receive a minister of another denomination.  

Please contact the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations if you need assistance in any part of this process.