Chapter 58 : The Administration of the Lord's Supper

Paragraph 2 : Of Those Excluded

58-2. The ignorant and scandalous are not to be admitted to the Lord’s Supper.

[Historical Summary : The text of the current BCO 58-2, though not in the exact wording, goes back to the 1645 Directory for the Publick Worship of God, and the same intent was found as part of the PCUSA and PCUS Directories for Worship up through 1925 for the PCUS. Because the section had been deleted, presumably in 1929, and was not found in PCUS 1933, it did not find its way into either the Proposed BCO (1973) or the first approved PCA BCO (1973). Thus the inclusion of this section in ______ was effectively a re-inclusion of the text.

Background and Comparison :
PCA 1973, DfW, Adopted text, as printed in the Minutes of General Assembly
[no comparable text]

Continuing Presbyterian Church 1973, DfW, Proposed text
[no comparable text]

1. PCUS 1925, DfW XI-2, § 348
2. PCUS 1894, DfW XI-2
and
3. PCUSA 1797, DfW VIII-2
The ignorant and scandalous are not to be admitted to the Lord's supper.

The Directory for the Publick Worship of God (1645), "Of the Celebration of the Communion"
"The ignorant and the scandalous are not fit to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper."