I was having a conversation with the pastor of my church last week, and we were talking about what the characterstics of a "Presbyterian" church are. Mainly, I wanted to see if there were differences in what Japanese considered "Presbyterian" to mean and what the western view of "Presbyterian" is. My understanding has always been that Presbyterian mainly referred to the form of church government. My pastor said that in the Japanese Presbyterian church, they took the term to mean two things: the form of church government and a committment to Puritan living. Is a committment to Puritan living (I'm going to have to ask more questions about what he considers that to mean also) considered to be integral to the western meaning of the term Presbyterian? My view is it's not, but I'm not so up on my Presbyterian church history. I write all the above with the disclaimer that anytime I have these conversations with people in my church, I often can't understand very well what they are saying, so I could be misrepresenting what he really believes.

Thanks,
John