Hi Sandra, Where's the Rev. Andrews?? Help! I think but stand to be corrected by our resident guru (Rev Andrews) that this might well be the same thing. The subscription was to the Westminster Confession of faith of 1646. http://www.pcanet.org/general/cof_contents.htm Arianism http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/p&t/Northern%20Ireland/controversies/ch5 Actually I found an explanation by the Rev. Andrews on another list here: http://hometown.aol.com/cngaeilge/presbyterian.htm We have now a notion of religion in Northern Ireland as being very conservative but actually it was long a hotbed of innovation and controversy, I suspect (but stand to be corrected by the Rev Andrews <grin>) because the established church was so weak. In Scotland the established church was Presbyterian and while there was plenty of controversy there, the established church was strong enough to suppress enough controversy that the Covenantors almost died out there (but did well in Ireland and the USA). In NI you have non subscribing synods (Antrim) -- hotbeds of wild ideas like Unitarianism. You also had healthy groups of Quakers and Methodists and settlings of Moravians -- more diversity than in Scotland, though I might be wrong. The Rev. Andrews is sure to tell us if I am ! (He's got a Phd in these things). So some of the nonsubscribers may have become Unitarians... we'll have to see what he says to be sure. >One set of records say they are buried in the Unitarian graveyard in >Downpatrick, the other says they're in the Non-subscribing Presbyterian >Graveyard. The other possibility is that the building changed. There's a case in Antrim where the burials are calls "Methodist", but before that the congregation (and so the dead people) were Seceders. If you know surnames in north/central Antrim, you can tell that in a moment. But they are published as Methodist burial records as the church building became Methodist. I think there's a short version of the Westminister Confession but I can't find it on the Internet. I did find it for sale! Westminster Confession of Faith SUPER SALE Here's a short history of confessions: http://www.bible-researcher.com/confessions.html Here's a historical presentation of the history of the confession (not by the Rev. Andrews): http://www.cresourcei.org/creedwestminster.html Linda Merle ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net