The Belhar Confession

By far the highlight of the assembly thus far, for me, was the passing of the Belhar Confession last evening. This confession, which came out of South Africa 30 years ago, had been studied for the past few years. It had  been approved by the general assembly and sent to the Presbytery for approval. Two-thirds of the Presbyteries approved it. The final step of the Belhard Confession  becoming a part of our Book of Confessions was for this General Assembly to approve it. We saw a video about the Belhar Confession. As we were about to vote I turned to the commissioner next to me and said, "We are about to make history."  After the vote the band lead us in song as everyone was clapping and on their feet. We then heard from two individuals from South Africa of their words of great appreciation for this event. The gathering then broke out into song singing "We will overcome".