NR #1995-070: Christian Reformed Classes Permitted to Declare Church Order
Ban on Women's Ordination "Inoperative"; Synod Decision Given Immediate
Effect without Two-Year Ratification Process

 Synod 1995 has passed an unprecedented decision in the 25-year-old conflict
over women in office: each of the denomination's 46 classes will be permitted
to declare the church order's ban on women elders, ministers, and evangelists
"inoperative." The decision, hailed as a "compromise" by its proponents and
blasted as a "ruthless" and "devious" act by its opponents, will remain in
effect until the year 2000 at which time it will be reviewed. Opponents were
particularly incensed by synod's device of using a church order supplement to
modify an article of the church order - a procedure which avoided the need
for ratification by a subsequent synod.


NR #1995-070: For Immediate Release
Christian Reformed Classes Permitted to Declare Church Order Ban on Women's
Ordination "Inoperative"
* Synod Decision Given Immediate Effect Without Two-Year Ratification Process

by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer
United Reformed News Service

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (June 19, 1995) URNS - The Christian Reformed synod has
changed its position on the hotly-disputed matter of women in office five
times in six years. If Synod 1995 has its way, however, the matter will be
settled by allowing each classis to declare part of the denominational church
order "inoperative" and banning any more discussion of the issue until the
year 2000.

 A key part of the 1995 decision involved a tactic which has never before
been attempted in the 25-year history of the CRC's women in office debate.
Instead of actually changing Article 3 of the church order, which specifies
that "confessing male members of the church who meet the biblical
requirements are eligible for the offices of minister, elder, and
evangelist," Synod 1995 added a supplement to Article 3 stating that "a
classis may, in response to local needs and circumstances, declare that the
word male in Article 3-a of the Church Order is inoperative, and authorize
the churches under its jurisdiction to ordain and install women in the
offices of elder, minister, and evangelist."

 Synod cited two grounds for the unusual procedure: that placing the decision
in the supplement "will reflect its temporary nature, and allow Article 3 to
remain as it is" and that "a decision with regard to the addition of a
supplement to an article of the Church Order does not need to be ratified at
a following synod." As part of the second ground, synod also noted that "a
decision without the need for future ratification will allow some classes to
deal expeditiously with a number of irregular situations which are currently
present."

 Whatever else the unusual act of qualifying the church order by means of a
supplement may accomplish, it will have the effect of permitting women to
legally hold office in at least some classes without following the two year
ratification process which up until this point has been used in the women in
office debate. Furthermore, even in classes which do not vote to declare the
church order inoperative, synod specified that "the classis shall not
exercise its disciplinary authority to enforce compliance, provided that the
role of women elders is restricted to the local church in which they hold
office."

 All of these actions were predicated on one initial recommendation from a
ten-member majority of the 17-member advisory committee on women in church
office: "that synod recognize that there are two different perspectives and
convictions, both of which honor the Scriptures as the infallible Word of
God, on the issue of whether women are allowed to serve in the offices of
elder, minister, and evangelist."

 Despite allowing women in office, the advisory committee majority
recommendation which was adopted by synod argued that "this position is a
compromise for the vast majority of the members of the committee, but is
offered in the hope that it will be positively received by a sizeable
majority of synod, thus providing a solution to our current dilemma."

 Numerous delegates who supported women in office picked up the committee
theme and argued that the proposal was a compromise, noting that other parts
of the recommendation specified that women may not be delegated to synod, may
not serve as synodical deputies, and may not be appointed by synodical
agencies to fields of labor within their jurisdiction.

 "Like my brother Bob Godfrey, I too have a number of difficulties with the
majority report, but none of those difficulties is so significant that they
cannot be discussed in the five year period of peace which this will usher
in," said Pastor George Vander Weit of Classis Lake Erie. "Three of our six
deacons are female, three of our six elders are female. We have been richly
blessed by God."

 "It has been said that the issue of women in office has divided us; that's
not true; we have divided us by not making room for each other," continued
Vander Weit. "It's time to make room for congregations like the one I serve."

 Early in the debate, Rev. Gordon Pols from Classis Toronto presented an
"interpretive reading" of the workings of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15,
comparing it to the current proceedings of the Christian Reformed synod.

 "Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood
up and said, 'Women must be silent in the churches and forbidden to teach and
preach, or be ordained as elders or ministers among us, and required to obey
the law of Moses and Paul,'" read Pols. "And the ministers and elders met to
consider this question. And after much discussion, 20 years of it, Peter got
up and addressed them: 'Brothers, you know that some time ago at Pentecost,
God made a choice among you that the women might hear from my lips the
message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he
accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He
made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by
faith. Now then, why do you try to test God, by putting on the necks of the
disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No!
We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just
as they are.'"

 "Therefore we are sending this message to the churches," continued Pols in
his interpretive reading. "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to
burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: Women may serve
the church of God in equal capacity as men and in all offices, but they are
to abstain from conduct and behavior which would needlessly offend the
sensibilities of God's people, avoiding all appearances and practices of
lording it over men, but use their gifts in godly service. Then the men were
sent on to deliver this message in town and cities, where they gathered the
church together and delivered this pronouncement. The people heard it and
were glad for its encouraging message."

 Following Pols' speech, Rev. Aldon Kuiper from Classis of the Heartland
questioned the appropriateness of the reinterpretation of Scripture. "I'm not
certain how to receive that reinterpretation of Scripture, whether those who
have another understanding of Scripture are now to be considered Pharisees, I
have to think about that a bit," said Kuiper, prior to moving that synod
table the majority report to consider the recommendation of the minority
"that no change be made in Church Order Article 3."

 Kuiper's motion to consider the minority report received only 62 of a
possible 184 votes.

 After receiving strong criticism from other delegates, Pols told synod that
he meant only to cite an example of two parties in the church, not to call
opponents of women in office "Pharisees."

 Other delegates noted with approval that both the majority and minority of
the advisory committee were able to agree on a common introduction expressing
"appreciation for the manner in which those on both sides of the issue in the
advisory committee dealt with each other" and stating that "perhaps if this
attitude was more widely practiced on both sides of the denomination this
issue would not have caused as much pain and disunity as it has."

 "I would say to you that this report is a fulfillment of the proclamation
that Jesus makes about the Kingdom of God; Jesus said that people would come
from east and west, from north and south, and they would be at one table in
the Kingdom of God," said Rev. Joel Kok from Classis Northcentral Iowa. "I
believe that this report calls people from Grand Rapids East and
Westminster-West, from Alberta North and California South, to eat together,
mutually humbled by God, at one table in the city and kingdom of God. We can
humiliate one another or we can both be humbled by a report that completely
pleases neither side, and by doing that, by following this report, we can
fulfill Jesus' proclamation and his prayer, that the church be one, not in
specific exposition of every single passage of Scripture, but in the
essentials of the salvation by Christ, which both sides acknowledge is
present on both sides."

 While Classis Alberta North and Classis Grand Rapids East may view the
report as a compromise, Westminster Theological Seminary president Dr. W.
Robert Godfrey, attending synod as a delegate from California South, thought
otherwise. "Don't fool yourself into thinking that this is a compromise that
will satisfy everybody in the church. For those who believe in conscience
that they cannot serve in classis or on consistory with a woman because the
apostle has forbidden it, this will not be a compromise, but will be an
impossible binding of their consciences," warned Godfrey.

 Godfrey took particularly strong exception to the proposal for immediate
ratification of women in office. "This is revising the church order without
revising it, and it will be perceived in the church as a ruthless act, a
devious act," said Godfrey. "I know that is not intended by the committee,
but I'm sure that's how it will be perceived."

 Other delegates also picked up on Godfrey's concern. Classis Zeeland
delegate Rev. Jim Stastny said that recognizing the legitimacy of two
different interpretations of Scripture on women in office would lead to other
consequences. "I can see this easily becoming a Pandora's box of other
issues," said Stastny.

 "Why not then argue that way for believers baptism?" asked Stastny - a
graduate of Talbot Theological Seminary and formerly an Arminian
dispensationalist  "Why not include others who have contrary beliefs to those
we hold but yet are not within the fold of our fellowship? Why not include
with these arguments those who hold to a premillenial or postmillenial
position? I think that by approving this first recommendation one we will be
opening doors for ourselves that we will regret in the days and months and
years to come."

 The majority committee recommendation, however, was not the only unusual
motion to come before synod. After comparing the synod delegates to "pit
bulls" and "type-A personalities," Rev. Loren Swier of Classis British
Columbia South-East said it was time to "dare to do something radical" by
"letting go" through tabling both the majority and minority reports so "that
we leave this place at the end of the week as we have determined, agreeing to
trust God." When synod president Rev. Cal Bolt ruled Swier's motion out of
order, Swier challenged the ruling of the chair. Synod sustained the ruling
with only one dissenting vote.

 In short succession, two synod delegates moved to cease debate and limit
future speeches to two minutes. According to a procedure unique to the
Christian Reformed denomination, synod delegates whose name was on a
speakers' list prior to the motion to cease debate continued to speak for
several additional hours.

 Subsequent speeches closely focussed on the legitimacy of saying the Bible
can be understood to say two different things. "When we heard Rev. Vissinga's
speech, we were stunned. It was repulsive," said Rev. Bernard Tol from
Classis Zeeland, referring to an earlier speech by the fraternal delegate of
the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland affirming the legitimacy of gay
marriages and selective termination of seriously handicapped newborn infants.

 "We saw the fruit of the New Hermeneutic," said Tol. "Now some would say,
just a bad conclusion to the New Hermeneutic, but I don't know. We've only
been at it twenty years."

 "I'm firmly convinced the Word of God is not relative; I firmly believe that
one has to be right and the other one has to be wrong," echoed Dr. Warren
Lammers from Classis Iakota. "God does not speak out of two sides of his
mouth, he does not have forked tongue, instead it is the serpent that has the
forked tongue."

 However, most delegates agreed with the majority committee that both
positions on women in office honored Scripture. "What is the alternative to
deciding that we have two different perspectives?" asked Elder Gerald
Gabrielse from Classis Atlantic Northeast. "It seems like the only
alternative is to do what was done last year by the majority report, to
declare that one Scriptural position is clear and the other is not. If we
keep making such pronouncements to each other back and forth, I think there's
no choice but that we will divide."

 Hinting at a different possible compromise, Calvin Seminary president Dr.
James A. De Jong suggested that there might be a better way to handle the
matter. "My burden at this synod is for those holding the traditional
position who might be outvoted but will not be persuaded that there are two
equally valid biblical positions. If that situation obtains, I think we do
not extricate ourselves from our pain," said De Jong, shortly before the end
of debate. "I think that there is a way in which the more traditional
brothers might be persuaded and their consciences freed, but I can't say that
in two minutes, so you'll have to ask me at some other time what that might
be."

 When the vote came on the key recommendation that "there are two different
perspectives and convictions, both of which honor the Scriptures as the
infallible Word of God," the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of women in
office: 112 yes to 66 no votes - by far the widest margin on the women in
office question in recent years.

 Synod then adjourned for dinner and in its evening session moved on to the
potentially more vexing question of applying its previously approved
principle that there are two legitimate ways to understand the Bible's
teaching on women in office.

 At the beginning of the session, Elder Don Langerak of Classis Grandville
asked De Jong to explain his suggestion. After a brief hunt for the seminary
president, the synod president announced to loud laughter that De Jong was
attending a church picnic at his home church and would be back later in the
evening.

 Once the session resumed, Rev. Roger Sparks of Classis Iakota reminded the
delegates that the 1994 declaration that the "clear teaching of Scripture
prohibits women from holding the offices of minister, elder, and evangelist"
was still in effect unless formally rescinded, and according to the church
order could only be rescinded by proving it to be contrary to the church
order or the Word of God. "I think that if we are going to proceed with
integrity as a synod, either we must declare and make it very explicit that
the declaration of 1994 is null and void, or we have to admit that this
recommendation two is out of order," said Sparks.

 Godfrey objected again to the process of using a supplement to qualify the
church order and moved the deletion of a ground stating that "there is
precedent for declaring parts of the Church Order inoperative. From 1914 to
1965, the articles on particular and regional synods (47-49) were placed in
parentheses. The churches were agreed that these would be inoperative, i.e.,
not implemented until such time as it might be appropriate to implement
them."

 "In fact this amends the church order, whatever the committee says," said
Godfrey. "I would plead with all of you, wherever you stand on this issue, if
there is any genuine love for the conservative side of the church, if there
is a real desire to compromise on this issue, then do not leave the
impression with the churches that we've done something contrary."

 "Think about it - is it really honest for us to say the church order still
says women may not be ordained but we're going to go ahead and ordain women
by means of the supplement?" asked Godfrey. "That is amending the church
order in effect while not amending it in reality, and we need to follow our
own procedures if we're going to ordain women."

 Other delegates, however, argued that the ground to which Godfrey objected
was merely a statement of fact and that his amendment was properly a speech
against the whole motion, not just against the ground. Godfrey's motion went
down to defeat on a voice vote.

 When De Jong arrived later in the evening, the synod president invited him
to explain his proposed alternative solution to the women in office question.

 "I think most everyone on this floor, and perhaps many people who are here
listening in, realize that I have not been a flaming progressive on this
issue," said De Jong. "I have been reticent and cautious, believing that it
is incumbent upon those who want to change to make such a clear and
articulate case so that all of us would be convinced and led by the Spirit to
follow along."

 De Jong presented four "systematic corollaries" arguing for the ordination
of women. "I think that the more conservatively Reformed our doctrine of
Scripture is, of inspiration, primary author, secondary author, the more
compelling is the case for the ordination of women to all offices," said De
Jong. "It's interesting to me that the Holy Spirit uses the words of Hannah
and Mary to bind male preachers in the twentieth century."

 "A second consideration is John Calvin's doctrine of the ministry of the
Word," said De Jong, noting that Calvin believed preachers received their
authority from the preached text, not from their person.

 "If authority is not in the person, gender does not matter," argued De Jong.

 Thirdly, "in the great theological controversies of the church, when a
heresy is articulated, everything else starts to unravel," said De Jong,
citing as an example the influence of Pelagianism on many other doctrines.

 "I have searched my heart, and I can't find where the ordination of women to
the offices of the church materially affects the fabric of our Christian
faith," said De Jong. "It does if we move into it on some secular humanistic
presuppositions, but those need not be proclaimed."

 De Jong said his fourth reason for affirming the ordination of women was the
doctrine of the immutability of God: since God does not change, the fact that
he raised up women as prophetesses and judges in the past means he can do so
again.

 "I think there are ways to consider this issue that we haven't looked at,
that could free the consciences of those who haven't seen their way
exegetically to be in favor of the ordination of women," said De Jong. "These
are considerations that have to be weighed and tested among us, but for me,
they moved me to a new position, and perhaps that will be helpful to others."

 De Jong's speech advocating women in office came as a surprise to most
delegates; only a few speakers criticized the recommendation after the speech
and most who rose to take the floor spoke in its favor. One delegate moved to
delete the section barring classes from preventing churches within their
bounds from electing women elders - a motion which quickly failed after
Vander Weit noted that defeating the motion could allow Classis Lake Erie to
force all churches in the classis to elect women elders. Finally, Tol from
Zeeland took the floor and urged synod to simply adopt women in office
through a change in the church order rather than following a long and drawn
out process which would make women "second class ministers."

 "By passing two [allowing classes to declare parts of the church order
inoperative], I think we have frustrated the conservative end of the spectrum
to the lowest point. By passing three [placing restrictions on women
ministers and elders] we do the same thing to the ladies we want to allow to
be ordained," said Tol. "I'm convinced this will not make for peace, peace
that will last."

 While no delegates took up Tol on his suggestion to simply change the church
order, several attempts were made to loosen restrictions on ordained women
ministers. One delegate unsuccessfully moved to delete the restriction on
women ministers being appointed to a field of service by synodical agencies.
After some unsuccessful parliamentary efforts to rule various items out of
order, synod adopted the proposed church order supplement changes, declared
that "this arrangement be in effect until the year 2000, at which time it
will be reviewed," and voted to "urge the churches to recognize that this
issue is not one of salvation and that even in our differences we remain
sisters and brothers in Christ."

 After the initial 112 to 66 vote, all subsequent votes passed by wide voice
vote margins. No delegates sought to have the votes recorded.

Contact List:

Mr. Tim Penning or Mrs. Bonny Wynia, Christian Reformed Synodical News Office
 Calvin College, 3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI  49546 * O: (616)
957-8652 * FAX: (616) 957-8551

To Reach Delegates During Synod: (616) 957-6000
Pre-Recorded CRC Synod Hotline: (616) 957-8654



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