Book of Confessions

The Church of Scotland believes in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and proclaims Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and glorified. It receives the Word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as its supreme rule of faith and life.

The Church also has ‘subordinate standards.' These are doctrinal statements that are ‘subordinate' to scripture and which express the common beliefs of the Church.

Since 1647, the principal subordinate standard of the Church of Scotland has been the Westminster Confession of Faith. However, due to a seven-year process of confessional reform, as detailed below, from 1 January 2026, the Westminster Confession of Faith will be joined by other historic and contemporary statements of faith to form the Church of Scotland's Book of Confessions.

Confessional Reform

The Theological Forum led the Church through a process of confessional reform between 2018-2025. The Forum's work included:

People walking

A detailed account of the process of confessional reform can be found in the 2025 Report of the Committee on Overtures and Cases.

The Book of Confessions

The Book of Confessions contains:

  • The Apostles' Creed
  • The Nicene Creed
  • The Scots Confession
  • The Westminster Confession of Faith
  • The 1992 Statement of Faith

The Creeds are accepted by the majority of Christians and are sometimes called Catholic or ecumenical. They confess our shared belief in the Trinity, incarnation, atonement, resurrection and ascension, the unity of the Church and life of the world to come, among other important doctrines.

The Confessions contained in the Book of Confessions represent the distinctive Reformed doctrines that distinguish the Church of Scotland from other parts of Christ's Church, on subjects such as election, justification and sanctification, the sacraments and the relation of Church and State.

Taken together, the Creeds and Confessions express the Catholic and Reformed faith of the Church of Scotland.

The Book of Confessions will also contain an Introduction and Prefaces, drafted by the Theological Forum, which will explain how the statements of faith came to be written, what is distinctive about them and what role they have played in the life of the Church.

The text of the Book of Confessions will be made available in PDF in due course, and will be published in hard copy by 1 January 2026.

Church of Scotland Learning: Book of Confessions

The Theological Forum are developing an accompanying module in collaboration with Church of Scotland Learning to help bring deeper understanding and practical application to all that is explored in the Book of Confessions.

This module will be for everyone in the Church of Scotland who is interested in learning more about the historic faith of the Church and, most importantly, how we can make this historic teaching a living faith.

This module will be launching early 2026, and you can find out more by watching this film:

Register for Church of Scotland Learning today to access this module when it launches: Register for Church of Scotland Learning

Find out more about Church of Scotland Learning.