NR #1996-034: Lake Erie Overture Engine Shifts Into Overdrive When the Christian Reformed synod meets this summer, nearly a sixth of the overtures before it will come from only one of its 46 classes. For the second year in a row, Classis Lake Erie has broken synodical records for submitting the most overtures to come out of any classis in a single year. Classis Lake Erie's thirteen overtures to Synod 1996 cover a wide variety of topics, including women in office, terminating membership in the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council, reviewing the CRC's abuse guidelines, creating a process to appeal decisions of denominational boards, and various structural matters affecting the governance and functioning of denominational boards and committees. NR #1996-034: For Immediate Release Lake Erie Overture Engine Shifts into Overdrive by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service TROY, Mich. (April 12, 1996) URNS - When the Christian Reformed synod meets this summer, nearly a sixth of the overtures before it will come from only one of its 46 classes. For the second year in a row, Classis Lake Erie has broken synodical records for submitting the most overtures to come out of any classis in a single year. Classis Lake Erie's thirteen overtures to Synod 1996 cover a wide variety of topics, including women in office, terminating membership in the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council, reviewing the CRC's abuse guidelines, creating a process to appeal decisions of denominational boards, and various structural matters affecting the governance and functioning of denominational boards and committees. While the overtures came from a variety of sources, including a classical study committee on women on office, First CRC of Detroit, and North Hills CRC of Troy, Michigan, classical stated clerk Pastor George Vander Weit was instrumental in drafting most of the overtures. "I was the primary author of 12 of the 13 overtures to synod, but five of those twelve went through other people in a committee or consistory and got changed around," said Vander Weit. "Although I am the person who pens the overtures, it's not as if I do this by myself; it's not merely me doing my own concerns, but me picking up documents from other churches and putting them into a form to send on to synod." Last year when Classis Lake Erie sent twelve overtures to synod, some delegates objected that delegates from the classis - including Vander Weit himself - had been assigned to synodical advisory committees that would be making recommendations on adoption of the overtures written by the classis. That won't happen this year, according to denominational General Secretary Dr. David Engelhard. "We have a rule of thumb that people from classes that have presented overtures are not put on committees of preadvice dealing with those overtures," said Engelhard. "Because their overtures do bunch up a bit on similar topics, we were able to avoid that happening again this year." Nine of the thirteen overtures were adopted at Lake Erie's March meeting, as follows: * Appeal of Board Decisions: First Detroit CRC overtured Classis Lake Erie to overture Synod 1996 "to appoint a study committee to explore the feasibility of and recommend to Synod a means for the swift hearing of appeals to ministry decisions made by synodical boards, committees, and staff employed by those boards and committees." In the overture background, the church cited five examples of correspondence to the Home Missions personnel regarding funding cutbacks for the Wayne State University campus ministry. "It is inappropriate that Boards should be the court of last appeal in a matter which may actually involve differences in principles and priorities for local ministries over which the Board should not exercise control," wrote First Detroit CRC. "A separate body should hear both sides of such a matter, and have power to enforce a decision upon both parties." * Appoint a Committee to Receive Responses to the 1995 Decision. See separate article on topic. * Modify the Regulation Concerning Synodical Agencies. See separate article on committee to receive responses. * Terminate Membership in NAPARC. See separate article on topic. * Amend Article V of Board of Trustees Constitution. North Hills CRC successfully overtured classis to overture synod to amend the proposed CRC board of trustees constitution "to reflect the nominating/electing procedure currently used by the Boards of Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary." The effect of the overture would be to have each classis prepare nominations for Board of Trustees at its fall meeting, submit the nominations to the board, have the board prepare a slate from the nominees, and have the classes vote for their regional representative at their spring meeting. The current Board of Trustees practice is to prepare the list of nominees at its March meeting for submission to synod. "We believe the regions that nominate people who will represent them on the Board ought to vote for these people," wrote North Hills CRC. "In fact, we contend that they are uniquely qualified to do so since they are more likely to have personal knowledge of the nominees than are synodical delegates who live hundreds of miles away from that region." * Restructure the Back to God Hour Committee. North Hills CRC successfully overtured classis to overture Synod 1996 to "restructure the Back to God Hour Committee so representation on the committee conforms to the pattern of regional representation on other denominational boards," to "use the election procedure currently used by the boards of Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary," and to "instruct the Back to God Hour Committee, in conjunction with the Executive Director of Ministries, to complete this transition as soon as possible, but no later than 1999." The overture to restructure the CRC's official radio and television broadcast ministry stemmed from North Hills' realization that "our classis has never been solicited for nominees to this Committee, nor have we had the opportunity to vote for a person in our region who would represent us." According to classis, the Back to God Hour board structure historically differed from most other denominational boards which had one representative from each CRC classis. Now that most denominational agency boards are moving to a system of regional rather than direct classical representation, North Hills argued that "restructuring the Back to God Hour Committee in this way will bring the work of the Back to God Hour closer to the churches and will facilitate more effective communication between the Committee and the churches." * Appoint a Committee to Review Abuse Guidelines. The report of a CRC committee to study various forms of abuse has drawn strong fire from conservative churches alleging feminist bias and opposition to traditional male headship in families. Since 1992, Classis Lake Erie has objected to the report and subsequent guidelines on processing cases of alleged abuse for somewhat different reasons. "We are supportive of efforts to curtail abuse and to bring healing to the lives of those touched by it. We are also concerned that our synods are not taking the care necessary to give adequate guidance to our churches in this matter," wrote North Hills CRC in an successful overture to Classis Lake Erie. Citing an earlier overture asking Synod 1992 "asking that the committee's recommendations be 'replaced with ones that are pastoral instead of punitive,'" North Hills CRC wrote that "classis especially noted a lack of concern for the alleged perpetrator and believed that the harshness of the report would 'only perpetuate the denial and fear of exposure already present.'" North Hills CRC also stated that the proposed guidelines for handling abuse cases "conflicted with current church polity in several places" and noted that "a lawyer from our classis, in material given to the advisory committee [of Synod 1995], observed, 'Fundamentally, the hearing process outlined in the proposed guidelines turns the traditional presumption of innocence on its head requiring instead that the accused prove his or her innocence.'" In response to these concerns, classis asked synod to appoint a committee "to review and revise" the guidelines, addressing "the matter of basic justice for all parties concerned, the stridency of the material presented, the harmony of the guidelines and the Church Order, the use and limitations of repressed memory, the use of the category of spiritual abuse and any other matters it deems necessary to produce a set of materials/guidelines that demonstrate the denomination's desire that justice and healing be secured for all parties involved when allegations of abuse are raised" * One Calendar Week Synod. In a late overture to classis subsequently endorsed by North Hills CRC, Pastor George Vander Weit overtured to revise the nominating procedure for synodical officers by requiring that four elder nominees be placed on each slate of twelve names to be proposed for the synodical offices of President and Vice President, as well as of First Clerk and Second Clerk, provided that at least four elder names are submitted by the classes as candidates. The revision also proposed that "a brief description of the qualifications of each nominee shall be provided to the delegates" and suggested other related structural and programmatic changes. * Ensure Opportunity for Councils and Classes to Respond to Study Committee Reports and Policy Changes. In a second late overture subsequently endorsed by North Hills CRC, Vander Weit overtured "to ensure that study committee reports and policy changes which directly affect the life and ministry of the congregations and classes be submitted to the churches by November 1," noting that "increasingly, churches and classes are receiving such material too late to give it adequate consideration before synod acts on it." Elsewhere in the agenda, Vander Weit noted that the report on a one calendar week synod had arrived at the North Hills council on January 12 - the day of the Classis Lake Erie agenda deadline. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1995-022: Classis Lake Erie Sends Forty Pages of Overtures to Synod Contact List: Rev. William C. De Vries, Pastor, First Christian Reformed Church of Detroit 1444 Maryland, Grosse Pointe Park, MI 48230 * (313) 824-3511 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@crcnet.mhs.compuserve.com Pastor George Vander Weit, Stated Clerk, Classis Lake Erie 2901 Waterloo Dr., Troy, MI 48084 * O: (810) 645-1990 * H: (810) 649-5388 * E-Mail: NoHillsCRC@aol.com ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-034.txt .