In the August edition of The Spirit, we began a series on church bodies with which the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has entered into full communion. This month we focus on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), one of three Protestant churches from the Reformed tradition that the ELCA established full communion with in 1997 – the other two church bodies being the Reformed Church in America and the United Church of Christ.

The Presbyterian Church, along with the Lutheran Church, traces its history back to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century. Twenty years after Martin Luther posted a list of 95 grievances against the medieval Roman Catholic Church on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, a Swiss theologian, John Calvin, further expanded on basic reformation principles. His understandings about the nature of God and God's relationship with humanity in what came to be known as Reformed theology. John Knox, a Scotsman who studied with Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland, took Calvin's teachings back to Scotland. Other Reformed communities developed in England, Holland and France. Here in North America, many Presbyterians trace their ancestry back to Scotland and England.

In its confessions, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) expresses the faith of the Reformed tradition. Central to this tradition is the affirmation of the majesty, holiness, and providence of God who creates, sustains, rules, and redeems the world in the freedom of sovereign righteousness and love. Presbyterians have established a distinctive form of church governance that stresses the active, representational leadership of both ministers and church members. Calvin developed the presbyterian pattern of church government, which vests governing authority primarily in elected laypersons known as elders.

In America, the first presbytery was organized in 1706, the first synod in 1717; the first General Assembly was held in 1789. The Presbyterian church in the United States has split and parts have reunited several times. Currently the largest group is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has its national offices in Louisville, Ky. It was formed in 1983 as a result of reunion between the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS), the so-called "southern branch," and the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA), the so-called "northern branch"– which had separated at the time of the Civil War. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a membership of 2,587,674 in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Presently there are 11,260 congregations, 20,940 ordained ministers, and 108,532 elders.

The order of a Sunday worship service in a Presbyterian church generally includes prayer, music, reading from the Bible, and a sermon based upon scripture. The sacraments, a time of personal response, and a sharing of community concerns are also parts of Presbyterian worship. The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) suggests that worship be ordered in terms of five major actions centered in the Word of God – gathering around the Word, proclaiming the Word, responding to the Word, the sealing of the Word, and bearing and following the Word into the world.

According to the "Book of Order" of the Presbyterian Church, Baptism and the Lord's Supper are understood to be sacraments instituted by God and commended by Christ. Sacraments are "signs of the real presence and power of Christ in the Church, symbols of God's action." Through the sacraments, "God seals believers in redemption, renews their identity as the people of God, and marks them for service" (Book of Order W-1.3033.2). In the dialogues leading up to full communion, Lutherans and Presbyterians were able to reach agreement that Christ is truly present in the Sacrament of the Altar. One of the goals of full communion is for Lutherans and Reformed Christians to grow together in their understanding of this mystery as they share in this sacrament and cooperate in ministry as the Body of Christ in the world.