New translations of A Brief Statement of Faith are available just in time for Pentecost

As churches celebrate Pentecost, Presbyterians are reminded of the accounts in Acts 2:1–31, when the Holy Spirit descends on disciples to proclaim the gospel in many languages. It is a good season to celebrate that Presbyterians speak many languages and to lift up the efforts of the individuals, mid councils, agencies and the General Assembly to support worship in many tongues.

In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit built community through translation, blessing disciples with the inspiration to speak and the ability to understand and to be heard. Recent translation efforts championed by staff of the Interim United Agency and supported by the Administrative Services Group reveal how multiple language translations of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) confessions can be an important foundation to the work of building a multicultural church and a global movement of repair.

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In 2025, the Rev. Ralph Su, associate for Asian Intercultural Congregational Support at the IUA, oversaw the completion of three new translations of the PC(USA)’s “A Brief Statement of Faith” in Mandarin, Vietnamese and Indonesian for the purpose of facilitating leader training in immigrant churches and new worshiping communities in which these are the primary languages. Currently, Su serves 125 Asian language-speaking groups with 10 language groups that comprise the National Asian Presbyterian Council. While many of these groups are Presbyterian and steeped in the Reformed tradition through their countries of origin, the constitutional documents of the PC(USA) have been inaccessible for the training of new officers and new pastors or commissioned ruling elders due to the limited accessibility of official translations. “The Asian Congregational Support office had already sponsored editions of the Book of Order in Indonesian, Mandarin and Vietnamese,” said Su, who described the need for an official translation of confessions particular to the PC(USA). 

“We tried to utilize the AI to do the translation,” said Su, noting the challenge of accurate translations of creeds and confessions due to the particularity of theological concepts. Su surmised that there wasn’t enough data yet in the large language models of artificial intelligence to support accurate translations of the Book of Confessions in languages other than Mandarin. He explained how certain idioms of Reformed theology were awkwardly rendered, requiring a native-language-speaking pastor or ruling elder to review them first.

“A Brief Statement of Faith was the first confession to be translated in non-Korean Asian languages through Global Language Resources,” said Su. “When we talk about Presbyterian faith, we have a very rich confession of faith, but that’s a very thick book.” Su then explained that A Brief Statement of Faith was chosen because it was concise and current, and conveyed a time of merger between the cultures of two Presbyterian traditions. Su noted that local church leaders have completed translations of the Belhar Confession into Mandarin and Indonesian.

“A Brief Statement of Faith is unique to the PC(USA), so there has not been any known use in Indonesia,” said Hanafi Tanojo, a ruling elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, California, who was commissioned to translate A Brief Statement of Faith into Indonesian. “Older church confessions, such as the Apostles' Creed or Heidelberg Catechism, are traditionally used in many denominations in Indonesia, but there is no official PC(USA) translation.” Tanojo said that each denomination in Indonesia translated confessions as needed, and no two translations are the same. In 2019, Tanojo served on the committee that completed a translation of the Book of Order into Indonesian. 

Mandarin and Vietnamese versions of A Brief Statement of Faith were completed by teaching elders who are currently serving churches in Georgia and California.

The Rev. Ming Chen (Grace) Lo Rohrer 羅敏珍(Grace) completed the official translation of A Brief Statement of Faith into Mandarin. She serves as the pastor of Atlanta Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in Duluth, Georgia, and holds theological degrees from Taiwan Theological College and Seminary, Fu Jen Catholic University and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary.

The Rev. Philip Trinh translated A Brief Statement of Faith into Vietnamese. Trinh is the vice moderator of the National Asian Presbyterian Council, chair of the National Vietnamese Presbyterian Council and senior pastor of Vietnamese Grace Community Church in Sacramento, California.

Su hopes these new versions will inspire more translations and spotlight the need to train immigrant leaders in language and culturally sensitive ways as they bring their ministry into the PC(USA). In 2024, the 226th General Assembly considered many resolutions around ordination standards and ultimately extended the work of the “Task Force to Explore the Theology and Practice of Ordination.” Some of their inquiry “to understand the theological, cultural, scriptural and practical implications of ordination and membership for the church in this present age” pertains to the experience of immigrant pastors seeking ordination or to have their ordinations recognized by presbyteries within the PC(USA). The task force’s report will also impact non-English speaking congregations searching for new pastors or commissioned ruling elders to serve their communities.

As one of seven congregational associates to support non-white congregations in the PC(USA), Su and his colleagues operate out of the Office of Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministry (REWIM) of the IUA. He plays many roles in facilitating a capacious understanding of what it means to be Presbyterian as he supports mid councils and the immigrant leaders seeking to serve as minister members in them. Su helps immigrant pastors and presbyteries secure the appropriate religious worker papers and connect with presbyteries in their home countries for recommendations of good standing. In addition to supporting the process of grant funding through the IUA, intercultural congregational associates like Su also support the training of immigrant leaders in PC(USA) polity, recommend ways for mid councils to integrate these leaders into presbytery life, and resolve conflict when miscommunication arises between new immigrant leaders and mid councils.

His colleague, the Rev. Moongil Cho, dedicates his time to working with Korean-speaking congregations through the Korean Intercultural Congregational Support office, whereas Su, who speaks Taiwanese, Mandarin and Japanese, currently assists congregations and leaders from Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia, India and Pakistan.

Su and his colleagues have tried several models for training non-English-speaking immigrant leaders. Earlier this year, Su met one-on-one over Zoom with a new Taiwanese leader. The PC(USA) currently has 42 Taiwanese congregations, and half are without pastoral leadership as the congregation cycles into another generation. With stricter immigration policies, accepting calls to Taiwanese-speaking congregations in the U.S. is more difficult for graduates of Taiwanese seminaries.

Su pointed to two promising models for future training that can incorporate language and culturally specific trainings. The first is a pilot program his colleague, the Rev. Princeton Abaraoha, who works in the Office of African Intercultural Ministries, is developing with the Presbytery of Grand Canyon to create a commissioned ruling elder certificate program for leaders within the National African Presbyterian Council. The second is a hope to partner with a seminary professor to create polity courses that can be translated into the multitude of languages now represented in the PC(USA) with the help of technology and to augment that didactic learning with language and culturally specific small groups organized by the various councils of immigrant churches.

“My constituents would like to see translations in Swahili, French, and Nuer (a language spoken in South Sudan)” said Abaraoha, who is delighted to see how the congregations that Su supports have responded to the official translations.

“We have a lot of resources geared towards supporting congregations,” said Su, who wishes that more presbyteries understood that it’s not just the staff in REWIM but also the resource documents as well as networks of connections that intercultural congregational associates can utilize to “support the presbytery when they welcome a new racial-ethnic group into their midst.” 

The new translations of A Brief Statement of Faith can be found on pcusa.org page resourcing Asian and Pacific Islander Congregations. 

Gifts to the Pentecost Offering support the Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium, the Young Adult Volunteer Program and the Educate a Child, Transform the World national initiative.