The Westminster Standards

In 1643, amid civil unrest, the English “Long Parliament” convened the Westminster Assembly of Divines at Westminster Abbey. Its members, mostly Puritan ministers, were to bring the Church of England into closer agreement with the Church of Scotland and the Reformed churches of the continent. The resulting documents, the Confession of Faith (1646) and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1647), together form the enduring Westminster Standards, which have shaped Presbyterianism ever since.