Our Beliefs

Our Beliefs

What do Christians believe? To help with that, we offer a short paper authored by Rev. Jeff Loach, minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Nobleton ON (used by permission), "What does it mean to become a follower of Jesus?". If you have any questions, Pastor Hurd or our webservant would be happy to talk to you - see our staff page for contact info.

What do Presbyterians believe? - that is one BIG question. Historically Presbyterians have gone on at considerable length about what they believe, and one could go away from that conversation with a large bibliography useful guaranteed to help those with insomnia. So being true to our roots, we'll provide a bibliography at the end of this piece, but lest we scare anyone off, we'll start right here at Parkwood.

Parkwood's Statement of Purpose

We thought folks might ask just how we do this, so we fleshed that out in a little more detail. We help individuals and families:

• Discover the love of God through
  • Trusting in Jesus Christ as Saviour
  • Being concerned and caring for each other

• Grow in the love of God through
  • Worship
  • Strengthening believers
  • Fellowship with other Christians
  • Living a Christian lifestyle
  • Study of Scripture
  • Prayer

• Share the love of God through
  • Sharing the Gospel with others
  • Serving people in their need

Our Affiliations

We are affiliated with The Presbyterian Church in Canada which in its document Basis of Union (1875), indicates its belief that "the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, being the Word of God, are the only infallible rule of faith and manners".

Other historical documents (available for download here) have detailed what our church believes, including:

• The Westminister Confession of Faith (1646)
• The Westminster Larger Catechism (1647)
• The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1646-47)
• Declaration of Faith Concerning Church and Nation (1955)
• Living Faith (1984)

Our national church website, presbyterian.ca, features an excellent resource page here, where you can find links to official documents (many available for download) as well as:

• A brief history/background piece on Presbyterians in Canada
• Some main points on What We Believe:
  • God is Triune
  • Our view of the Bible
  • The importance of Worship and the Sacraments
  • Why reaching out and serving is important to us
• Symbols of the Church
• Creeds - the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed

If you have any questions, Pastor Hurd or our webservant would be happy to talk to you - see our staff page for contact info.