About the Presbyterian Church

God comes to us in free and undeserved favor in the person of Jesus Christ who lived, died, and rose for us that we might belong to God and serve Christ in the world. Following Jesus, Presbyterians are engaged in the world and in seeking thoughtful solutions to the challenges of our time.

Presbyterians affirm that God comes to us with grace and love in the person of Jesus Christ, who lived, died, and rose for us so that we might have eternal and abundant life in him. As Christ’s disciples, called to ministry in his name, we seek to continue his mission of teaching the truth, feeding the hungry, healing the broken, and welcoming strangers. God sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, giving us the energy, intelligence, imagination, and love to be Christ’s faithful disciples in the world.

More than two million people call the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) their spiritual home. Worshiping in 10,000 Presbyterian congregations throughout the United States, they engage the communities in which they live and serve with God’s love.

To find out more about this dynamic and thriving denomination, come to the PCUSA main website.

The Presbyterian Symbol

The seal of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a symbolic statement of the church’s heritage, identity, and mission in a contemporary form.
The seal is designed with a simplicity that enables the viewer to retain the image of the mind’s eye.  The symbolic and visual qualities remind the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) of its identity and call to be the servant of Jesus Christ.

The basic symbols in the seal are the cross, Scripture, the dove, and flames.  The dominant element in the design is the cross.  The cross represents the incarnate love of God in Jesus Christ, and his passion and resurrection.  Because of its association with Presbyterian history, the Celtic cross was chosen as a model for this contemporary rendering of the ancient symbol.

The contour of the book in the horizontal section highlights the emphasis that the Reformed tradition has placed on the role of Scripture as a means of knowing God’s word.

The slightly flared shape of the Celtic cross also makes possible the transformation of the uppermost section into the shape of a descending dove. As a symbol of the Holy Spirit, the dove is intimately tied to the representation of the Bible, affirming the role of the spirit in both inspiring and interpreting Scripture in the life of the church. The dove also symbolizes Christ’s baptism by John and the peace and wholeness that his death and resurrection bring to a broken world.

Beneath the image of the book is the suggestion of a lectern or pulpit, which captures the important role of preaching in the history of Presbyterian worship. Integrated into the lower part of the design are flames that form an implied triangle, a traditional symbol of the Trinity. The flames themselves convey a double meaning: a symbol of revelation in the Old Testament when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and a suggestion of the beginning of the Christian church when Christ manifested himself to his apostles at Pentecost and charged them to be messengers of the good news of God’s Love.

The triangle also suggests the nature of Presbyterian government, with its concern for balance and order, dividing authority between ministers of the Word and laypersons and between different governing bodies. This understanding of the church was based in part on an important idea in Reformed theology, the covenant, which God establishes with people to affirm God’s enduring love and to call us to faith and obedience to Jesus Christ.

Looking more closely, you may see the body of the bird, the form of a fish, an early-Christian sign for Christ, a baptismal font or a communion chalice. In 1 Corinthians, Paul described the church as a body with many members, illustrating the pluralism of the church and the many gifts that God gives to its members. So the seal’s individual parts, when taken together, form an encompassing visual and symbolic unity, while not exhausting the richness of possible interpretations.

Paraphrased from Book of Order, The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 2007-2009, Appendix E