Sacraments & Ordinances

Presbyterian theology recognizes two sacraments — Baptism and the Lord's Supper — as covenant signs and seals. Baptism signifies and seals the covenant of grace: it is the New Testament equivalent of circumcision (the covenant sign of the Old Testament) and is therefore administered to the infant children of believers as well as to adult converts. Infant baptism in this covenantal framework is a sign of God's covenant promises, not necessarily a guarantee of regeneration; the promise is to the covenant community and its children.

The Lord's Supper is celebrated with a spiritual real presence: Christ is truly present to the faith of the communicant through the Spirit, but his physical body is in heaven (the Extra Calvinisticum). The Westminster Confession (Chapter XXIX) explicitly rejects transubstantiation ('repugnant not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason') and Lutheran ubiquity. This receptionist-spiritualist position has been characteristic of the Westminster tradition since the Marburg Colloquy. The Lord's Supper 'is only to be administered by a minister of the Word lawfully ordained' (WCF XXIX.3).