Wednesday was a very eventful day at Synod.
The major concern was the CRC’s relationship with the PCN (Protestant Church in the Netherlands). The GKN (the Dutch CRC) merged with two other churches a number of years ago to form the PCN. However, it was unclear whether or not the PCN was a continuation of the GKN, or a new denomination. Synod decided the PCN was a new church.
However, this was not so evident as they discussed what sort of relationship to have with the PCN. It seemed that most delegates took for granted that it is advantageous to mantain a relationship with the CRC’s parent-sister church. Alongside this, many delegates were still very concerned with what was viewed as the GKN and PCN’s deviation from the Christian faith.
Therefore, the majority report’s recommendation that full fellowship with the PCN was defeated. Especially relating to homosexual matters, 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 were invoked involving the propriety of discipline in this area.
Ken Rip gave my favourite speech in this debate. He compared the grace we must show with the grace God showed when approaching Abraham and David, who were imperfect, with his special grace. Thus this is the type of grace we ought to show to the PCN. (At the beginning of this speech, he called Rev. Boot “Madam President”, which prompted someone to yell out “use the rock!”. There was lots of other discussion (not all of it too great, which vice-president Thea Leunk made jest of).
The long-awaited discussion about the Form of Subscription also came up Wednesday. The motion to recommit the FoS revision, along with their “doctrinal covenant” and other work, to a new committee passed unanimously. Part of this (from an amendment from the floor), this committee will report to Synod in 2009 and 2010. The new FoS and report is due to the churches in 2010, and it will be before Synod 2011. Also, from the discussion on the floor, it is clear that the new-document type of revision of the FoS is what will be followed.
The study committee for this was unusually made up of a huge 11 people. At least 2 will be ethic minorities, and 2 from emerging churches. This was to counter what was called “tokenism” by appointing only one person from these groups.
Concerning nominees for boards, Synod turned down the BOT’s request not to have a slate of nominees to vote from, which I think was very wise. They agreed with the BOT to eliminate the BOT alternates, to free them for other work.
The debate over whether to eliminate women advisors was quite charged, as the recommendation was not very well-worded. Rev. Vanden Akker wrote a more neutral version of this, which passed handily.
Tags: CRC, synod, Synod 2008
