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PCUSA v PCA

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Paleoconservatarian

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Well, a good place to start is see if the church really adheres to the historical Reformed confessions (in the case of Presbyterian churches, this would be the Westminster Confession). To be honest, John Calvin isn't as important in Presbyterianism as you might think. Several of his moderate, well-balanced and highly nuanced positions (e.g. his position on the Lord's Supper or on the fourth commandment) don't find all that much representation in Presbyterian churches.

But I believe the primary standard of how Presbyterian a Presbyterian church is ought to be faithfulness to that which defines Presbyterianism: its creeds and confessions.
 
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TraderJack

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One of those being First Presbyterian of Pittsburgh, PA, quite possibly the oldest Presbyterian church in the USA, and is still a Christ centered, Bible believing Reformed church. They may be splitting from the PC-USA very soon though over ordaining homosexuals, among other things.
 
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TraderJack

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Excellent points, all.

I might add that we also want to take care not to confuse customs with legalism, for legalism is a term that refers to soteriology, whereas a particularized church may have different customs, such as adhering strictly to the Psalter, how often to sup at the Lord's Table, etc, those are not legalistic prescriptions tied to salvation, but are customs which a particularized church is free to hold to.
 
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TraderJack

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DoomRyderOCST said:
Sorry for the slight thread drift here, but is it a requirement that PCA chuches only have communion communion once a month, or is it up to the individual churches if they want to have communion on a more frequent basis?
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A particularized PCA church is an autonomous church within a presbytery and enjoy a certain amount of freedom in many areas, especially when it comes to customs.

We used to sup at the Lord's Table once a month, but went to a weekly sup nearly a year ago after much discussion and debate within the session(body of elders) and with the congregation as a whole, settling on following the admonishment, "As oft as you gather, do this in rememberance of Me".

Why, we even sup at the Lord's Table at mid-week prayer services on occasion, but are careful to not, so often that it becomes taken for granted or cavalierly.
 
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edie19

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I'm actually a tad surprised to not have seen it mentioned - but presbyterian refers to a form of church government - so as far as PCA vs PCUSA goes one isn't more "presby" than the other.

However there are certainly doctrinal differences between the two.
 
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