NR #1995-079: No Discipline for Churches Ordaining Women or Refusing to Pay
Denominational Ministry Shares

 The Christian Reformed denomination will have women elders, but churches
which don't like the decision won't be forced to pay for it. That's what the
Christian Reformed synod effectively decided in its closing session on
Wednesday, June 21, when it approved a revised advisory committee report
recommending that synod not accede to four overtures calling for various
forms of ecclesiastical discipline against churches and classes which have
elected women elders.

NR #1995-079: For Immediate Release
No Discipline for Churches Ordaining Women or Refusing to Pay Denominational
Ministry Shares

by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer
United Reformed News Service

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (June 21, 1995) URNS - The Christian Reformed
denomination will have women elders, but churches which don't like the
decision won't be forced to pay for it.

 That's what the Christian Reformed synod effectively decided in its closing
session on Wednesday, June 21, when it approved a revised advisory committee
report recommending that synod not accede to four overtures calling for
various forms of ecclesiastical discipline against churches and classes which
have elected women elders.

 While synod earlier followed the recommendation of its advisory committee
and voted down an overture asking for discipline against Classis Grand Rapids
East for its decision to elect women elders, it did not take action on other
overtures which asked for discipline not just against Classis Grand Rapids
East but against all churches and classes with women elders. The day after
synod decided not to discipline Classis Grand Rapids East, the same committee
recommended "that synod adopt the policy of not seating as synodical
delegates or as members of denominational boards and committees and of not
recognizing as synodical deputies any members or officebearers of
congregations which (1) withhold or permit members to withhold denominational
ministry-share gifts as a protest against denominational decisions or
agencies, or (2) ordain women to the office of elder, evangelist, or pastor."
While a number of overtures before synod asked for discipline of churches
with women elders, none asked for discipline of churches which withhold
denominational payments.

 The disciplinary action was directed against both progressives and
conservatives in the Christian Reformed denomination; at least seventeen
churches had elected women elders prior to Synod 1995 and conservatives had
mounted a financial counterattack by refusing to pay denominational ministry
shares. Each Christian Reformed congregation is asked to pay $244.99 per
professing member and $567.29 per family on a three-fifths/two-fifths
member/family ratio, but according to official synodical statistics, ministry
share receipts have dropped from 78 percent in 1992 to sixty percent this
year. As recently as fifteen years ago, receipts averaged almost ninety
percent. The result of this slippage, according to the financial matters
advisory committee, is that "significant reductions in ministry are being
required because of declining and unreliable funding by the churches."

 Following Synod's June 19 decision to permit classes to declare the church
order's ban on women elders inoperative, the church order advisory committee
withdrew its recommendation and cited the women in office decision as its
ground for doing so.

 Several synodical delegates objected to the revised committee
recommendation. Rev. Casey Freswick, pastor of Newton (NJ) CRC which had
submitted one of the overtures which was later adopted by Classis Hudson,
argued that failure to discipline rewarded churches with women elders for
their ecclesiastical noncompliance.

 However, Rev. Joel Kok from Classis Northcentral Iowa reminded delegates of
the original wording of the committee report. "This is an illustration of the
conciliatory nature of this synod," said Kok. "This came in the context of
the original report which asked for discipline, not only of those with women
elders, but of those who withhold ministry shares. After the events of Monday
night, this would have put us in the ironic position of disciplining only
those who had called for the discipline of others."

 "Gentlemen, it's time to quit this," said Pastor George Vander Weit of
Classis Lake Erie, who serves a church with three women elders. "We've got to
start making room for each other if we are in the body of Christ."

 After debate, synod adopted the committee recommendation - including a
statement that if synod wishes to appoint a study committee to determine how
to deal with ecclesiastical noncompliance "it would be best served by doing
so in response to an overture from one of our churches documenting the scope
and prevalence of ecclesiastical noncompliance."

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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