Constitution

The
CONSTITUTION OF THE
AMERICAN  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH

 

The  Constitution of the American Presbyterian Church consists of the following documents...

The Confession of Faith

The Shorter Catechism

The Larger Catechism

Preliminary Principles to the Form of Government, etc.

The Form of Government

The Book of Discipline

The Directory of Worship

Notes with respect to the Constitution of the American Presbyterian Church...

The doctrinal standards of the Church (Confession of Faith and Catechisms) are based on the Westminster Standards as amended by the American Presbyterian Church to reflect historic American Presbyterianism as well as its distinctives.

The remaining standards (Form of Government, Book of Discipline etc.) are largely based on the 1821 Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the USA with contributions from the RPCNA and the CRC Constitutions. 

All the standards are complete with a full set of proof-texts.

Copies are currently only available to ministers and elders in the American Presbyterian Church.

It is purposed to publish (DV) hard copies of the standards of the Church by some time in the year 2001. 

In the meantime the standards will be available to all online.

The language of the internet, HTML, does not support footnotes so online versions of the standards unfortunately will be without the scripture proofs contained in the footnotes. 

The current electronic version of the standards is in Microsoft WORD 97.  For those who have this software we are offering downloadable electronic versions in compressed  (zip) files. To download a file click on the hyperlink at the end of the file on the page where it is displayed. 
(Note: You will have to have Winzip installed on your computer as well as WORD97 or later so that you can unzip (decompress) the file.  You can download a free trial version of Winzip from the Internet at Winzip.com.) 

 

Home Confession of Faith Shorter Catechism Larger Catechism Preliminary Principles Form of Government Book of Discipline Directory ofWorship