From: Darrell128@aol.com Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 03:39:33 -0400 Subject: NR 63: RCA Turns Down CRC Merger Proposal NR #1995-063: For Immediate Release Reformed Church in America General Synod Replaces Proposal for Merger with Request for Closer RCA-CRC Cooperation by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (June 14, 1995) URNS -- The General Synod of the 323,255-member Reformed Church in America (RCA), meeting from June 10 to June 16 at the campus of Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, had an opportunity to end one of the oldest breaches in North American Protestantism dating back to 1857. In that year, four West Michigan congregations seceded from the RCA -- organized by Dutch colonists in 1628 and America's oldest continuously-established Protestant denomination -- and laid the foundations for what is now the 294,179-member Christian Reformed Church in North America. This year, the RCA's Classis of North Grand Rapids overtured the RCA General Synod "to effect full programmatic and organizational union with the Christian Reformed Church in North America by June 2000." However, the General Synod acted upon the recommendation of an advisory committee to replace the overture with a proposal "to encourage the agencies of the General Synod as well as the Commission on Christian Unity to maintain regular correspondence with the respective corresponding agencies within the Christian Reformed Church in North America and its Interchurch Relations Committee; and further, to explore avenues of reconciliation between the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church in North America for additional programmatic cooperation." According to Rev. LeRoy Koopman, assistant press officer for the RCA General Synod, the substitute motion passed unanimously. "There was some discussion on it, but there really wasn't any pro and con discussion; I don't think anyone spoke against it," said Koopman. "There were a few women who had come out of the Christian Reformed Church and are either studying at our seminaries now or are ordained Reformed Church ministers who got up and related their pain as members of the Christian Reformed Church." Koopman said that RCA General Secretary Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson cited the new LiFE Sunday School curriculum, the TRAVARCA audiovisual library, and several missionary couples as examples of RCA-CRC cooperation that already exists. "There is more programmatic cooperation with the CRC than with any other denomination," said Koopman. Unlike the CRC Synod which meets for two weeks, the RCA General Synod will adjourn this Friday after a single week of business. Key items already passed include a recommendation from the RCA's Council on Hispanic Ministries "to direct the General Secretary to urge Reformed Church in America congregations, seminaries, and offices, to declare all RCA buildings as smoke-free environments" and referral of a paper on welfare reform to the churches for study. The welfare reform proposal directly addresses matters currently under debate in the US Congress. "Basically it said in our desire to balance the budget let's not forget the poor, and pointed out the fact that many people, especially women and children who are receiving aid, really do need it and Christian compassion really says we ought to do it," said Koopman. On Thursday, June 15, the General Synod will elect its next president and vice-president. Dr. I. John Hesselink, professor at the RCA's Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, is currently serving as vice-president and custom dictates that he will be elected president after his one-year term as vice-president. Synod will then take up the divisive issue of homosexuality which has been a topic of debate for some time in the denomination. While the CRC officially split from the RCA in 1857 over such issues as use of hymns, open communion, neglect of preaching from the Heidelberg Catechism, neglect of home visitation by the elders, and the opinion of some in the RCA that an 1834 split in the Dutch state church was unnecessary, the major differences between the RCA now include such issues as women in office, Christian education, and local church property rights. The RCA has allowed women in office since a judicial decision at the 1979 General Synod: advocates of women in office were never able to muster enough votes to change the church order to explicitly permit women in office, but when several classes began to disobey synod by ordaining women elders and minister, opponents of women's ordination were hobbled by the lack of a clear prohibition of women in office in the denominational book of church order and were unable to gather enough votes at General Synod to discipline disobedient churches. The CRC is also a strong advocate of separate Christian schools and since 1970 has officially permitted churches to withdraw with their properties after a process of proportional division of assets. The RCA has generally supported public school education and, as with most mainline denominations, in most cases churches seceding from the RCA must forfeit their church buildings. The RCA's most prominent pastors in recent years have been Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, now deceased, who for years pastored Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, and Rev. Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1995-044: Reformed Church in America Overtured to Consider Merger with Christian Reformed Church by Year 2000 Contact List: CONTACT DURING GENERAL SYNOD 1995: Rev. LeRoy Koopman, Assistant Press Officer: O: (201) 529-7500 ext. 7045 Pre-Recorded RCA General Synod Hotline: (800) 283-1160 Rev. Richard Bates, President, Classis of North Grand Rapids (RCA) 1465 - 3 Mile Rd. NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 * O: (616) 784-4060 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 Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary, Reformed Church in America 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115 * O: (212) 870-2841 Rev. LeRoy Koopman, News Office, Reformed Church in America 4500 - 60th St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512 * O: (616) 698-7071 Rev. E. Wayne Antworth, Director, RCA Stewardship & Communication Services 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115 * O: (212) 870-2954 * FAX: (212) 870-2499 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr95-063.txt .