NR #1995-024: For Immediate Release Lake Erie: End Ratification Process and Allow Immediate Implementation of Church Order Changes Proposed by Synod by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer Reformed Believers Press Service TOLEDO, Ohio (March 8, 1995) RBPS - Firing the opening salvo in what may prove to be a heated debate, Classis Lake Erie submitted a twelve page overture arguing that synod has never officially adopted and should not use the practice of requiring that church order changes made by one synod be ratified by a subsequent synod. If adopted by synod, Classis Lake Erie's argument would allow immediate ratification of women in office without requiring ratification by a subsequent synod. Unlike almost all other Reformed and Presbyterian denominations, the CRC does not have a clearcut and unambiguous process by which changes proposed by the denomination's broadest assembly are ratified by a subsequent assembly or by a majority of the classes or presbyteries. The lack of a clear ratification procedure dates back to the church order first adopted by the Synod of Dordt in 1619, which was intended to be amended only on rare occasions and remained unchanged for almost two centuries. Article 95 of the original Dordt church order, a provision retained by the CRC in a slightly modified form until 1965, stated that "these Articles, relating to the lawful Order of the Churches, have been so drafted and adopted by common consent, that they, if the profit of the Churches demand otherwise, may and ought to be altered, augmented, or diminished. However, no particular Congregation, Classis, or Synod shall be at liberty to do so, but they shall show all diligence in observing them, until it be otherwise ordained by the General, or National Synod." After adopting a modified form of the Dordt church order at its organization in 1857, the Christian Reformed synod made only a few changes in the church order until a revised church order was adopted in 1965. The only relevant language in the current Christian Reformed church order is Article 47, stating that "the task of synod includes the adoption of the creeds, of the Church Order, of the liturgical forms, of the Psalter Hymnal, and of the principles and elements of the order of worship, as well as the designation of the Bible versions to be used in the worship services. No substantial alterations shall be effected by synod in these matters unless the churches have had prior opportunity to consider the advisability of the proposed changes." However, a church order supplement adopted by Synod 1979 stated that "prior opportunity to consider the proposed change(s) by the churches is defined as 'the time between the adoption of the proposed change by one synod and its ratification by a following synod.'" Despite this ambiguity in the official documents, a general understanding exists in the Christian Reformed denomination that major changes in the church order are to be ratified by a subsequent synod, usually the synod held the year following the initial decision to make a church order change. The result has been that women in office was proposed by Synod 1990, not ratified by Synod 1992, proposed by Synod 1993, and again not ratified by Synod 1994. Frustration with the process led to a number of overtures to Synod 1993 calling for immediate ratification without a one year delay and despite the rejection of the proposals by the previous synod. Synod president Rev. Peter Brouwer ruled such proposals out of order at Synod 1993, but similar proposals are again being forwarded by a number of classes to Synod 1995. Of all the request for immediate ratification, Classis Lake Erie's is the most detailed. In eight pages of documentation, the classis tracked 88 changes and attempted changes made to items governed by Article 47 by 26 synods during the years following adoption of the 1965 revised church order to the present. In its summary of the data, the classis notes that the first case of ratification occurred in 1974 and the process only became standard in 1982. The classis also notes that the same synod which defined the term "substantial alternations" and "prior opportunity" in 1989 gave immediate ratification to three church order changes proposed by Synod 1977 which Synod 1978 chose not to ratify. "The use of the term 'ratification' has probably politicized the process described in Article 47 and contributed to its misunderstanding," the classis stated. "Ratification is a common term in the secular world. In United States constitutional law an amendment adopted by Congress must be ratified by state legislatures. The ecclesiastical equivalent of this procedure has been proposed and defeated frequently." The classis also alleged that Article 47 "has been used in this way primarily because of the influence of one issue with which the church has wrestled since 1970, the issue of women in office." As a result, Classis Lake Erie proposed to synod that the Article 47 supplement be revised to allow synod to immediately adopt any change in the church order made on the basis of a study committee report which is received by November 1 of the year before synod meets, but to submit all changes made on the basis of an overture or standing committee report in the synodical agenda to a following synod which will consider its advisability. When the proposal was submitted to Classis Lake Erie, Dr. Clayton Libolt of River Terrace CRC in East Lansing, Michigan, made a brief presentation on its merits. "That idea of ratification has come up many times at synod; that has always been rejected," said Libolt. "But the idea has sort of snuck in by the back door that you have to have one synod ratify the decisions of a previous synod. That is nowhere in the church order." While immediate adoption of church order changes without ratification will undoubtedly be controversial at synod, it met with little controversy in Lake Erie and passed by a unanimous voice vote. Cross-References to Related RBPS Articles: #1994-034: CRC Synod Appoints Committee to Study Calling God "She"; Ratification of Church Order Changes by Classes Rejected Contact List: Dr. Clayton Libolt, Pastor, River Terrace Christian Reformed Church 2210 Moores River Drive, Lansing, MI 48911 * H: (517) 371-4018 * O: (517) 351-9059 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr95-024.txt .