North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council
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The North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) is an association of some Presbyterian and Reformed churches in the United States and Canada.

It lists as its basis biblical inerrancy and the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dordt, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms. Several Presbyterian and Reformed churches in the United States and Canada do not belong to the Council, including the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (which would be rejected because of theological liberalism), the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (which has been refused because they ordain women as pastors), and the Christian Reformed Church in North America, which was expelled after they approved female pastors.

The Council meets annually. The 34th Meeting of NAPARC was hosted by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Taylors, South Carolina, from November 11-12, 2008. The 35th Meeting of NAPARC will be hosted by the Heritage Reformed Congregations, at Puritan Reformed Seminary, in Grand Rapids MI, and is scheduled for November 17-18, 2009.

Member denominations

• Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
• Canadian and American Reformed Churches
• L'Église réformée du Québec (ERQ), or "Reformed Church of Quebec" (RCQ) in English
• Free Reformed Churches of North America
• Heritage Reformed Congregations
• Korean-American Presbyterian Church
• Orthodox Presbyterian Church
• Presbyterian Church in America
• Reformed Church in the United States
• Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
• United Reformed Churches in North America

Denominations applying for membership

• Presbyterian Reformed Church

Basis

The Constitution of NAPARC states that the Basis of the Council is "Confessing Jesus Christ as only Savior and Sovereign Lord over all of life, we affirm the basis of the fellowship of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches to be full commitment to the Bible in its entirety as the Word of God written, without error in all its parts and to its teaching as set forth in the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dordt, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms. That the adopted basis of fellowship be regarded as warrant for the establishment of a formal relationship of the nature of a council, that is, a fellowship that enables the constituent churches to advise, counsel, and cooperate in various matters with one another and hold out before each other the desirability and need for organic union of churches that are of like faith and practice."

Purpose and Function

• Facilitate discussion and consultation between member bodies on those issues and problems which divide them as well as on those which they face in common and by the sharing of insights "communicate advantages to one another" (Institutes IV, 2, 1).
• Promote the appointment of joint committees to study matters of common interest and concern.
• Exercise mutual concern in the perpetuation, retention, and propagation of the Reformed faith.
• Promote co-operation wherever possible and feasible on the local and denominational level in such areas as missions, relief efforts, Christian schools, and church education.

External links

• North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council