Here I go again, comparing two synods: the 219th General Synod of the Reformed Church in America and the Synod 2026 of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. For the full reports, see www.rca.org and www.thebanner.org. I will mention only what serves my purpose of comparison. I was a distant observer, and I cannot be objective, but I will not be unfair.
The two synods met almost simultaneously, but their meetings differed greatly. The RCA met as just one more convention in a bland airport hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, while the CRC was like a senate in its capitol at Calvin University. Which denomination will have felt more powerful and of greater interest to the world?
The RCA, after a decade of turmoil and the secession of a great many congregations and ministers, has not resolved the issue of Human Sexuality. But it seems to have achieved a consensus that both positions on the issue will be respected and left to the discretion of classes and consistories. The turmoil triggered a restructuring of its historic polity to eliminate regional synods and rearrange its system of judicial appeals. It is a smaller and chastened denomination having now to consolidate itself.
Last month I was talking with our General Secretary, Eddy Alemán. We’ve had our differences, especially on LGBTQ, but he told me he thought that “we’d turned the corner, and we’re in a good space, and we can be together in one RCA.” I assume he has said this often in his travels.
Last Thursday our classis delegates returned from General Synod with reports of good feelings all around. The restructuring was ratified. Only the proposal to give more votes to larger classes when amending the Constitution was denied—which maintains a shield against majority domination. The RCA has settled back into its habit of a coalition of differing interpretations on common doctrines.
Three things stand out. First, a Statement on Christian Nationalism, which some of us have been calling for since last year, was overwhelmingly approved. The declaration leaves some ambiguities, and might have referred to our Confessions, but it is strong, clear, and concise, and it does the job.
Second was an even stronger Statement on Immigration Enforcement-Related Actions and Policies. This declaration gets specific and appeals to the Belhar Confession. It was approved without dissent despite it clearly targeting practices of the Trump administration. Unfortunately, the RCA no longer has the program staff to work such statements through the denomination, so it will be up to local classes to do anything with them.
Third was the synodical leadership of women. Women delegates were consistently at the podium and speaking from the floor, and many of these were women of color. Yes, there continue to be reports of exclusion and disregard, but women are now as frequently elected as men to be synod president. This is in stark contrast to recent synods of the CRC, where the percentage of women delegates is going down.
The CRC Synod was also one of consolidation. And tightening. And repudiation.
For consolidation, the LGBTQ question is settled at No, with all office-bearers annually declaring their compliance, and no congregations may openly discuss it. The synod “joyfully” affirmed full communion with the Alliance of Reformed Churches, the body which seceded from the RCA.
For tightening, the synod confirmed higher assemblies absolutely having the right to intervene in local discipline—which is impossible in the RCA. It also declined to speak against Christian Nationalism, committing the topic to study instead.
For repudiation, the synod withdrew from the World Communion of Reformed Churches. I will not dignify the reasons given from the floor. Remarkably, the synod had just welcomed the General Secretary of the WCRC as ecumenical guest, the Rev. Philip Vinod Peacock. But the synod repudiated his appeal that communion is based on our being one in Jesus Christ, not on our agreeing with each other.
It was also a repudiation of the prior leadership, and a prior version of the CRC itself, which hosted the first General Council of the WCRC at Calvin College in 2010, after the mighty labors of Peter Borgdorff for its formation. And it was the repudiation of an ecumenical impetus going back through Henry Zwaanstra and Clarence Boomsma to John Kromminga.
In 2014, in Pella, Iowa, I attended the concurrent synods of the RCA and the CRC, where at our joint final worship service Peter Borgdorff preached. Our two denominations had pledged to be as united as possible wherever possible. How much has changed in twelve years since.
The two denominations have “turned corners” in different directions. Their consolidations are not convergent. They are becoming, in the words of Paul Vander Klay, “more like themselves.” How long the CRC will maintain full communion with the always-willing RCA remains to be seen. We can only hope that their divergence will not return them to their old estrangement.
All photos from www.rca.org and www.thebanner.org
22 Responses
A sad, but honest commentary on the two synods and the recent trajectory of the two denominations. I’m grateful for the welcome I (and so many other CRC refugees) have received in the RCA. As a pastor who has recently left the CRCNA and joined the RCA and received a warm welcome, I also ament what the CRCNA has become. It has gone from being a denomination characterized by an expression of Christian faith that, as a 17 year old freshman arriving at Calvin College in the fall of 1991 and coming from a fundamentalist background, I found courageous, compassionate and curious. It has now, regrettably, chosen to become inbred, ignorant and increasingly irrelevant. Perhaps the saddest part of the CRCNA synod was the way in which communion was severed with the WCRC. Despite the pleadings of the chair of the EIRC and the general secretary, the lies, innuendo and false assumptions purveyed by the Abide crowd prevailed. Unfortunately, I have no doubt that after the “three year study period” initiated by last year’s CRCNA synod, that the same type of tactics will be employed (and likely succeed) in severing a relationship of full communion with the RCA as well.
This would seem to restate one of your earlier assertions, Daniel. The RCA sees its mission as serving as yeast and salt, infiltrating, enhancing, embracing the community. The CRC has further embraced its gospel identity as the exemplary “city on a hill” others should like to join.
And by the way, the contrasting pictures tell a story. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Great, informative post, Daniel
Thanks for the summary Dan – things certainly seem to have gone awry in our institutional denominations since our youth in West Sayville. But then again, back in those days we were more concerned with the latest Cream album than the theological tantrums of the 60’s – wish Cal Seerveld was still around to wisk it all away!
Ja. And just as sad is that there is no longer either an RCA church or a CRC church in West Sayville. Only East Islip soldiers on as a CRC.
“For we couldn’t leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She’d saved our lives so many times, living through the gale.
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave–
They won’t be laughing in another day.
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow,
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go,
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.”
To give credit where due: Dan is not quoting Ginger Baker or Eric Clapton, or Abraham Kuyper or Ken Medema, but the great Canadian troubadour Stan Rogers (1949-1983), snatched from us far too soon. His songs — with his rich voice and fine guitar work — can lift the spirits even in these dark times.
The CRC crashed the Pella Accord, then left the scene of the crash. Along with several other RCA/CRC pairs, Terry DeYoung and I, who were leading our respective Disability Concerns ministries at the time, addressed a joint session in Pella. Delegates hugged. Apologies were spoken. Now, in Meeter’s word, the CRC has “repudiated” all of that. I’m sad and angry and reaffirmed in my decision to resign my ordination in the CRC and be ordained in the RCA. The CRC is once again embracing the motto, “In our isolation is our strength.”
It was my privilege to work with you and Terry. It’s hard to believe that the CRCNA seems to think excluding people is better than “Everybody belongs, everybody serves.” God bless you.
Thanks Curt. God bless you and yours too
You will be welcome in the RCA, Mark!
Thank you, Lisa. I’m delighted to say thay I have been welcomed warmly as a minister of the Word and Sacrament in the RCA. And through his writing, Dr. Meeter was a mentor to me as I prepared for my RCA classis examination, for which I’m also grateful.
Thanks for the stark comparison of these two synods. I wish you had included observations about how the CRC synod dealt with Calvin University and its board. A delegate found a gay flag in its halls. Why would the CRC want to continue to own such a den of iniquity? Many CRC parents won’t send their sons and daughters to such a liberal institution. You’d think the CRC would disconnect with the university for the same reasons it disconnected with the WCRC. Care to add a comment?
Well, at first glance, my comment would be that Calvin University is the CRC’s hugest single financial asset. In other words, follow the money. A costly asset, true, but so are most valuable assets. There is no sphere-sovereignty when it comes to Calvin. The CRC owns Calvin, but it had to share in the WCRC. And further, I believe that the current powers of the CRC really do believe that they can turn Calvin into something like another Hillsdale. They know that academics like to keep their jobs.
Thanks for another insightful piece, Daniel! Added to your list of repudiated CRC ecumenists of the past (Borgdorff, Zwaanstra, Boomsma, Kromminga) could be Tymen Hofman, Gerard Bouma, Leonard Hofman, David Engelhard, Richard Van Houten, Emily Brink, et al.–and, more recently, William Koopmans.
I am glad to see the list of more recent “repudiators”, several of whom I had good relationships with during my years at Calvin Seminary .
Tymen and Emily, I have esteemed them both. Tymen from the Neland pulpit, in his robe, also generously informing me that the hymn “God of the Prophets” was written for New Brunswick Seminary. Emily calming me down and encouraging me.
Good memories
Thanks for the excellent comparison of the two synods, Daniel. Like you, I have significant experience in both denominations, and I am extremely disappointed with the direction the CRC, the denomination of my raising in the faith, has taken. I corresponded with WCRC General Secretary Philip Peacock directly after their decision, and he was generous in his forgiveness of the way he (and, by extension, the WCRC) was treated by the synod. Having seen a less gracious side of the RCA General Synod while I was president, I was delighted that this gathering was bold, welcoming and gracious with an exuberant spirit. I am grateful that God led us to the RCA back in the 1980’s for personal reasons (largely consistent with what you described in the synod), and I am thankful that its witness is blossoming in ways that are bold and meaningful. Again, thank you!
As a pastor who was on the frontlines of the dreadful CRC Synod of 22, I can tell you’ll that the fundamentalist direction of the CRC is not a surprise. I am thankful for the RCA for providing me a place of refuge to continue my ministry. I wonder if the RCA should rethink its communion with such a denomination.
Thank you for your article. I was saddened and angered by the overall tone while watching the CRC synod. Church unity is no longer a value. Unity seems to be a stronger Scriptural theme than LGBTQA issues.
Thank you, as always, Daniel, for your insight. I had looked at the summaries of both conferences and though not truly familiar with the CRC, I had gotten a similar impression. I was appalled about the vote to sever relations with the World Church after the representative had so eloquently spoke. Very sad situation.
Dan, you probably remember my school teacher husband 😄. I hear voices in these responses from my seminary days in the education program. I left the CRC in 1996 after attending WTS for the MDiv. No ordination for the renegade me in the CRC. I am a happy Presbyterian, but I value the people named here in the comments.
I’d add Kristen DuMez, whose blog today addresses the same issues. I was singing in the choir at the founding meeting of WCRC. I also have relatives in the Abide crowd and live in an area of Alliance churches.
Thanks for your insights.