Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1997 04:02:08 -0500 (EST) From: Darrell128@aol.com Subject: NR 97110: ICRC Amends Constitution and Regulations NR #1997-110: International Conference of Reformed Churches Amends Constitution and Regulations After debate in its October 17 session, the International Conference of Reformed Churches voted unanimously to adopt several changes to the organization's Constitution and Regulations. According to a report of an ICRC committee appointed in 1993, the revisions were intended as "a reformulation of the wording of these articles so as to clarify their real intention," namely, "to pay due attention to the unity and the diversity of the member churches." NR 1997-110: For Immediate Release International Conference of Reformed Churches Amends Constitution and Regulations by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service SEOUL, South Korea (October 17, 1997) URNS -- After debate in its October 17 session, the International Conference of Reformed Churches voted unanimously to adopt several changes to the organization's Constitution and Regulations. According to a report of an ICRC committee appointed in 1993, the revisions were intended as "a reformulation of the wording of these articles so as to clarify their real intention," namely, "to pay due attention to the unity and the diversity of the member churches." "ICRC member churches are committed to the Biblical and Reformed faith which they confess in the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards -- this is their unity," wrote committee members Rev. Peter Gadsby and Dr. Rowland Ward, both delegates from the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia. "But it is a unity in diversity, for there are differences between the Three Forms and the Westminster Standards, and there are even differences in the Westminster Standards adhered to by several of our member churches. For example, the Free Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith, as received by the Church of Scotland in 1647; the Orthodox Presbyterian Church subscribes to a different version of the WCF; and the Free Church of Central India to a slightly different version again." "These differences have not been held to be a bar against cooperation and fellowship in the ICRC, which is not a church nor a synod, but a 'Conference' of the delegates of like-minded, Reformed churches," continued the report. "In reformulating the several articles, we have tried to do justice to the diversity-in-unity of this biblical and Reformed conference." Constitutional revision issues have been the subject of considerable discussion in previous ICRC meetings, especially the 1989 session where the Canadian Reformed Churches and Free Reformed Churches of Australia proposed that "delegates subscribe only to the standards of the churches of which they are members." The proposal, later defeated after much discussion, led to a unanimous vote to require that proposals for altering the Constitution and Regulations be "submitted in accurate terms with clear indications as to the precise point in the wording... at which the alternative addition is to be adopted." A less heated debate continued in 1993 when the ICRC appointed Ward and Gadsby as a committee to review the membership requirements. Ward and Gadsby noted that ICRC member churches "which have reservations about parts of one or more of the documents mentioned in the Basis [ICRC doctrinal statement] have wished to have this section changed" to language that would not require them to subscribe to standards beyond those which they themselves have adopted. "The major problem with this is that it effectively destroys the Basis of the Conference!" wrote Ward and Gadsby. "A Basis must be shared if it is to promote commonality, but this proposal would divide the Basis, with each member church adhering to only part of it. There would effectively be two or more ICRC's, each subscribing to a different standard." Ward and Gadsby, however, recognized that joining the ICRC with the current language could wrongly imply that member denominations accepted both the Westminster Standards and the Three Forms of Unity when they joined the ICRC. "If in fact membership of the ICRC means full subscription to the six documents mentioned in the Basis, then unity has eaten up diversity, and all the member churches are one simply by becoming members of the ICRC!" reported the committee. "The problem lies in the interpretation of the words 'adhere and are faithful' in Article IV. As the foregoing discussion has shown, the ICRC has never been regarded as a 'short cut' to full church union. Rather, it is a means by which churches can come together to confer on an agreed basis, and facilitate those discussions which are properly the business of each respective church." As a result, the committee proposed that the Basis be "reformulated... so as to refer now to 'the Reformed faith'" but stating that "this does not require any applicant church to subscribe to all of the six documents, or even to any of them, thus leaving open the possibility of admission of churches who subscribe other Reformed Confessions than those listed." "Such churches and their confessions would have to be in agreement with the Reformed faith as summarized in the six documents," the committee stated, noting that the ICRC was already functioning with this understanding since at the time of its admission in 1993 the Reformed Church in the United States subscribed only to the Heidelberg Catechism. The RCUS has since formally adopted the Belgic Confession and Canons of Dordt. "It should be said that having a 'correct' Constitution will not ensure the ongoing faithfulness of this organization," added the committee. "The Reformed Ecumenical Council (Synod) began with a very fine sounding constitutional basis, but that did not prevent the declension in that organization which has sadly occurred. The ICRC will remain faithful only as its constituent members remain faithful, and if it ceases to be faithful to the historic Reformed faith, then faithful member churches will (rightly) abandon it as they have the RES/REC." While the ICRC delegates present adopted the report unanimously, it wasn't without cost. Prior to the meeting, the 1996 Synod of the Free Reformed Churches of Australia withdrew from the ICRC and sent a letter indicating that ICRC membership did not promote the unity and harmony of their denomination. ICRC interim committee secretary Rev. M. van Beveren, a member of the Canadian Reformed Churches, submitted a report to the ICRC stating that "while we deplore the decision of the Free Reformed Churches of Australia to leave the ICRC, we welcome seven churches that are applying for membership." The ICRC voted to send the Australian letter to the ICRC interim committee with instructions to draft a response to the Free Reformed Churches of Australia. In other related matters, the ICRC adopted an advisory committee proposal to thank the Orthodox Presbyterian Church for submitting a document explaining its reasons for severing ties with the Christian Reformed Church in North America, to receive an OPC letter on proposed policies for interchurch relations and a document on Biblical Principles of the Unity of the Church "with deep appreciation," and that "a special paper or papers on 'Biblical Principles of the Unity of the Church' be prepared for the ICRC 2001 utilizing the material submitted by the OPC, with contributing speeches from both the Presbyterian tradition and the (Continental) Reformed tradition, the speakers to be decided at a later session of this Conference." Another OPC letter on "Restructuring 'Ecclesiastical Fellowship'" was resubmitted to the advisory committee for a summary report and later discussion. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1997-103: International Conference of Conservative Reformed Denominations to Convene Next Week in Seoul, South Korea #1997-106: Former Reformed Ecumenical Synod Moderator Opens Prayer Service for International Conference of Reformed Churches #1997-107: International Council of Reformed Churches Convenes in Seoul, Elects Korean Chairman Contact List: Rev. W. Peter Gadsby, ICRC Interim Committee Member 9 Craiglee Close, Taree, NSW, AUSTRALIA O/FAX: [61] 6-552-1317 * E-Mail: gadsby@tpgi.com.au Rev. M. van Beveren, Secretary, International Conference of Reformed Churches 13904 - 86 St., Edmonton, Alberta CANADA T5E 3C1 O/FAX: (403) 478-5852 * E-Mail: vanbever@compusmart.ab.ca ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive97: nr97-110.txt .