NATION : Presbyterians Update Credo

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today approved a statement of faith that mixes traditional Christian beliefs with environmental concerns and images of God as both mother and father.

Commissioners stood and cheered after approving the statement--the church’s first since a 1983 merger of its northern and southern branches following a 122-year split over slavery--in a 499-25 vote.

The statement upholds centuries-old church teachings that Jesus Christ was both fully human and fully God, and that God raised Jesus from the dead to offer eternal life.

Reflecting more recent church developments, the statement also declares that God calls women and men to all ministries of the church, “and makes everyone equally in God’s image, male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community.”

The statement also says that human beings have exploited nature, “and threatened death to the planet entrusted to our care.”