From: Darrell128 Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 23:19:54 EDT Subject: NR 98033: Three Reformed Denominations to Meet This Summer in West Michigan NR #1998-033: Three Reformed Denominations to Hold General Assemblies or Synods this Year in West Michigan Most years, West Michigan plays host to only one denominational assembly: the Christian Reformed Church, which ordinarily meets at Calvin College in Grand Rapids but occasionally meets elsewhere. This summer, however, the region will host not just the annual meeting of the 279,000-member CRC but also the top assemblies of the 311,000-member Reformed Church in America and the 23,000-member Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Each meeting will be held during separate weeks. The RCA General Synod is scheduled to meet on the campus of the denomination's Hope College in Holland from June 5 to June 10; the OPC General Assembly will meet on the campus of the independently-run Reformed Bible College from May 27 to June 3. The CRC Synod will convene on June 13 and could run as late as June 20, though Christian Reformed denominational meetings often adjourn before the stated date. NR #1998-033: For Immediate Release: Three Reformed Denominations to Hold General Assemblies or Synods this Year in West Michigan by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. (May 23, 1998) - Most years, West Michigan plays host to only one denominational assembly: the Christian Reformed Church, which ordinarily meets at Calvin College in Grand Rapids but occasionally meets elsewhere. This summer, however, the region will host not just the annual meeting of the 279,000-member CRC but also the top assemblies of the 311,000- member Reformed Church in America and the 23,000-member Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Each meeting will be held during separate weeks. The RCA General Synod is scheduled to meet on the campus of the denomination's Hope College in Holland from June 5 to June 10; the OPC General Assembly will meet on the campus of the independently-run Reformed Bible College from May 27 to June 3. The CRC Synod will convene on June 13 and could run as late as June 20, though Christian Reformed denominational meetings often adjourn before the stated date. Reformed Church in America General Synod Of the three, the RCA has the most controversial agenda. In addition to a proposal from the Classis of Central California to reconsider requiring all ministers and churches to annually reaffirm that salvation is through Christ alone - a modified version of an earlier proposal that came one vote short of ratification this past year by the necessary two-thirds of RCA classes - the RCA has a number of other issues on its agenda. The RCA General Synod has three appeals before it. Two deal with local matters, but a third has denominational significance. Retired campus minister Rev. Don Van Hoeven of Kalamazoo, who was formally rebuked by the Classis of Southwest Michigan for heresy after writing articles in four local newspapers supporting the universal salvation views of Rev. Richard Rhem of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, is appealing the dismissal of his case by the Regional Synod of the Great Lakes. The General Synod's overtures and judicial business committee recommends that Van Hoeven's appeal be rejected on technical grounds, namely, that the rebuke was an action of pastoral admonition rather than judicial discipline. The RCA has a large number of overtures before it, many from the denomination's three classes in Canada which express serious objections to last year's adoption of the "formula of agreement" with the Presbyterian Church (USA), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and United Church of Christ. Complaints focus on the UCC's "open and affirming" position toward practicing homosexuals. In related matters, several Canadian RCA classes ask General Synod to take a variety of actions against the United Church of Canada in light of its refusal to discipline its moderator who denied the deity of Christ, the necessity of salvation through Christ alone, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the historicity of Scripture, and the traditional Christian understanding of heaven and hell. Many of the RCA's Canadian churches originated in secessions from the United Church of Canada under the leadership of Dr. Jonathan Gerstner, former synod executive of the RCA's Regional Synod of Canada. The RCA has a related report before it from its Commission on Theology affirming the uniqueness of Christ and necessity of Christ for salvation. Other theology commission reports include new proposals for moral standards of church officers and proposals for further study of the RCA "conscience clause" which affirms the right of RCA ministers, elders, and deacons to dissent from the ordination of women. "In the late 1970's and early 1980's the RCA was threatening to split over the issue of women officeholders. The conscience clauses were formulated to 'bring peace in diversity in the RCA over the issue of women in church offices,'" reported the Commission on Theology. "The conscience clauses approved in the 1980's do not address what conscientious objection to women officeholders means when there are a substantial number of RCA women ministers." "The commission believes that particular theological issues of this sort should not be legislated in the rules of governance but should instead be addressed through more appropriate processes of confession, discernment, and mutual accountability," concluded the commission. RCA procedures also allow its top officials, Synod President Rev. Charles Van Engen and General Secretary Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, to make recommendations for action in their respective speeches to General Synod. Both speeches are distributed at the General Synod and not available until that time. Other miscellaneous overtures to the RCA General Synod include an overture from the Classis of Florida that RCA denominational staff serve no more than ten years in staff positions without spending at least five years in full- time parish ministry, an overture from the Classis of Queens to reduce denominational financial assessments on the churches by two percent for each of the next three years, and a series of committee proposals to redefine denominational staff responsibilities to provide greater staff support and assistance to the denomination's 46 local classes. Orthodox Presbyterian Church General Assembly Commissioners to the Orthodox Presbyterian General Assembly will arrive in Grand Rapids to a somewhat uncertain welcome. Despite nearly five decades of close contact with the Christian Reformed Church, the OPC voted last June to sever its fraternal relationship with the CRC over the issues of women's ordination. Last November, the OPC voted to begin the process of suspending the CRC from the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council for the same reason, and this year the OPC will vote on ratifying the NAPARC proposal. Despite official decisions not to encourage CRC secessions so long as the denominations maintained fraternal ties, in recent years the OPC has received several congregations and a number of members who seceded from the Christian Reformed Church. Now that fraternal relations have been severed, the OPC recommends closer connections with the seceders. The OPC's interchurch relations committee recommends upgrading the current corresponding church relationship with the United Reformed Churches, the largest group of CRC seceders, to full ecclesiastical fellowship. That won't be the only issue before the OPC General Assembly, however. While the OPC thinks the Christian Reformed Church is too theologically liberal for ecclesiastical fellowship, the OPC's Presbytery of Philadelphia is dealing with a case involving a minister who thinks the OPC's stance on Arminianism isn't sufficiently Reformed. Rev. John Pedersen, former pastor of Living Hope OPC in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, has been charged by OPC stated clerk Rev. Donald Duff with church order violations for pastoring a church formed after a split in the Gettysburg OPC. The convoluted case is complicated and the central issue depends on whether one speaks to Pedersen or his opponents. According to Pedersen, the problem centers on whether the OPC is right in teaching that people who deny the Reformed faith and teach Arminian doctrines of salvation are heretics or simply in error. "The issue is this: is evangelical Arminianism, is the Arminian gospel, the same essential gospel that is defined in the Reformed creeds, differing only in the fact that the Reformed gospel is more true than the Arminian gospel?" said Pedersen. "The OPC basically holds to the Warfield position that the evangelical Arminian gospel is the equivalent of generic Christianity, and everything you hold in distinction to the evangelical Arminian gospel is not a matter of necessity but of personal preference." That isn't the way Duff sees matters. "I filed charges of schism, not heresy," said Duff. "The charges don't say anything about his views but just about what he did," said Duff. Other major issues before the OPC General Assembly include a proposal to close the Japanese foreign mission field and to create a program of supplemental theological training for future OPC ministers. "The Christian Education committee is coming up with a proposal for a ministerial training institute for supplemental training for OPC ministers," said Duff. "It would cover some of the things that aren't covered at any seminary. The whole matter of how to go and where to go will be dealt with at General Assembly." Traditionally Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia was effectively though not formally the denominational seminary of the OPC, and the denomination considered but rejected proposals to make it the official denominational seminary on the grounds that denominations may run seminaries but are not required by Scripture or Reformed church government to do so. However, in more recent years the OPC percentage of faculty members has been significantly reduced at both Westminster's Philadelphia and California campuses. In a report to General Assembly, the OPC's Subcommittee on Ministerial Training said it "discussed a wide variety of perceived deficiencies in candidates for the ministry in the OPC, including their lack of familiarity with the history and polity of the OPC; their lack of consistent grounding in covenant theology across the seminary curriculum; their lack of familiarity with the Westminster Standards, the biblical concept of office, and biblical Presbyterianism; their failure to rule their households well; and their inadequate knowledge of the Bible itself." "While the SMT found it difficult to assess the magnitude of these deficiencies and the frequency with which they are encountered, it continued to believe that further action by the church was needed to improve ministerial training," reported the subcommittee. The OPC is also dealing with growth problems. After a long period of slow growth and a brief period of significant decline when a number of its congregations left to join the Presbyterian Church in America, the OPC is currently experiencing one of the highest growth rates of any Reformed denomination. "Total membership grew by 5.67 percent, while both worship and Sunday School attendance were up by almost 4 percent," reported the denominational statistician in the General Assembly agenda. "Furthermore, a 6.6 percent increase in per capita giving combined with the membership increase to produce a 12.7 percent growth in total contributions. There is certainly much here to be thankful for as our Lord builds his church." Christian Reformed Church Synod In addition to the regular reports of the CRC's boards and denominational agencies, Synod 1998 will consider nineteen overtures, two appeals, and two communications. Four overtures ask Synod 1998 to reject Synod 1997's proposal to revise the property rules for new CRC congregations and those receiving denominational funding; three overtures ask synod to make various adjustments in response to the potential loss of $11.5 million of denominational funds invested with the California-based IRM Corporation; three overtures address women in office by asking Synod 1998 rather than Synod 2000 to make the final decision on allowing women's ordination, preventing a separate vote on male and female candidates for the ministry, and allowing denominational agencies as well as local churches to hire women ministers. Other overtures include: * Classis Thornapple Valley proposes a denominational study committee to revise the Form of Subscription to the CRC's doctrinal standards. * Classis Lake Erie asks for the deletion of Question 80 from the Heidelberg Catechism specifying that the Roman Catholic Mass is "a condemnable idolatry." * Classis Zeeland asks synod to declare that abortion is an "American holocaust." * Classis Atlantic Northeast asks synod to adopt an "inactive membership" category based on RCA procedures. * Classis Lake Erie asks synod to carefully review the terminology used by classes when processing ministers leaving the denomination. * Classis Grand Rapids East proposes an "independent assessment of readiness for ministry" for ministers separated from their churches * Classis Lake Erie proposes another minor revision to the abuse guidelines * Classis Pacific Hanmi (the CRC's Korean classis) asks Calvin Seminary to offer specialized courses for the Korean ministerial context. * Classis Wisconsin proposes a minor revision to the recent rule allowing delegation of deacons to classical sessions. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1998-003: Classis Zeeland: Abortion is an "American Holocaust" #1998-004: Classis Zeeland Rejects Lamont's Effort to Maintain Local Church Property Rights #1998-006: Classis Chatham asks Top Christian Reformed Administrative Committee to Appoint Independent Investigators of $11.5 Million in Questionable Investments #1998-019: Classis Lake Erie Asks CRC Synod to Review "Honorable Release" Declarations for Seceding Ministers #1998-020: Christian Reformed Synod Asked to Delete Anti-Catholic Statement from Heidelberg Catechism #1998-021: CRC Synod to Consider Inactive Membership Category (not sent) #1998-022: Church Property Rights Focus of Four Synodical Overtures (not sent) #1998-025: Classis Thornapple Valley Proposes Revising Form of Subscription to Christian Reformed Doctrinal Standards #1998-027: Christian Reformed Committee Nixes Proposal to Cancel Synod #1998-028: Classis Lake Erie Overtures Christian Reformed Synod to "Ensure the Editorial Freedom of the Banner" #1998-029: Classis Zeeland Asks Synod to Overturn CRC Property Rules #1998-030: Reformed Church in America Rejects Proposal to Require Annual Reaffirmation of Salvation Through Christ Alone Contact List: Rev. E. Wayne Antworth, Director, RCA Stewardship & Communication Services 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115 O: (212) 870-2954 * FAX: (212) 870-2499 Rev. Timothy Boeve, Moderator, Christian Unity Commission (RCA) 181 Chase St., Sonoma, CA 95476 O: (707) 938-8100 * H: (707) 935-0170 Rev. Donald Duff, Stated Clerk, Orthodox Presbyterian Church Box P, Willow Grove PA 19090-0920 O: (215) 830-0900 * H: (215) 887-4901 * FAX: (215) 830-0350 * E-Mail: duff.1@opc.org Dr. David Engelhard, General Secretary, Christian Reformed Church in North America 2850 Kalamazoo Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49560 O: (616) 246-0744 * H: (616) 243-2418 * FAX: (616) 246-0834 * E-Mail: engelhad@crcna.org Dr. Jonathan Gerstner, Professor, Knox Theological Seminary 2180 NE 55th St., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308-3162 O: (954) 771-8841x383 * H: (954) 492-8290 Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary, Reformed Church in America 49 Yawpo, Oakland, NJ 07436 O: (212) 870-2845 Rev. Richard Rhem, Senior Pastor, Christ Community Church 225 East Exchange St., Spring Lake, MI 49456 O: (616) 842-1985 * H: (616) 846-7777 * F: (616) 842-3476 * E-Mail: christcommunity@novagate.com Rev. Donald Van Hoeven 1024 Westfall, Kalamazoo, MI 49006 H: (616) 381-8586 ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive98: nr98-033.txt .