From: Darrell128@aol.com Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 00:59:57 -0500 (EST) Subject: NR 121A: NAPARC to Consider Expulsion of CRC To Reach United Reformed News Service Regional Office Staff: Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer [During NAPARC only, until 12 noon Wednesday, Nov. 20] c/o Pittsburgh Plaza Hotel 1500 Beers School Road, Moon Township, PA 15108 * O: (412) 264-7900 (ask for NAPARC) [After NAPARC adjournment] PO Box 691, Lawrence, MI 49064-0691 O: (616) 674-8446 * FAX: (6160 674-8454 * E-Mail: Darrell128@aol.com Greg Rickmar, Circulation Manager PO Box 1717, Battle Creek, MI 49016 * H: (616) 966-3343 * E-Mail: GRickmar@msn.com World Wide Web Site: "http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/reformed/reformed-home.html" NR #1996-121A: For Immediate Release Conservative Interchurch Council to Consider Expulsion of Christian Reformed Church by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service PITTSBURGH, Penn. (November 19, 1996) URNS - Tomorrow morning, the Christian Reformed Church may find itself expelled from the fellowship of conservative Reformed and Presbyterian denominations it helped begin 21 years ago. Meeting in Pittsburgh, tomorrow morning's session of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) will consider expelling the 292,000-member CRC due to its 1995 decision to allow the ordination of women as ministers, elders, and evangelists. The proposal comes from one of the CRC's longstanding supporters, the 271,000-member Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), whose 1995 General Assembly mandated its delegates to use "all due process" to remove the CRC from NAPARC unless it stopped ordaining women. Since the 1996 CRC synod voted down numerous overtures asking for an end to the ordination of women, the PCA brought the expulsion proposal to this year's NAPARC meeting. "Last year our General Assembly put us under mandate to deal with the situation with the Christian Reformed Church and what has been going on and I understood that there was something from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church that was coming," PCA stated clerk Dr. Paul Gilchrist told the NAPARC delegates. "The position that we have taken is we value the relationship we have with the CRC in NAPARC, and our desire is to continue in that relationship, however we are grieved and distressed by the action of the Christian Reformed synod." However, a technicality almost stopped the PCA's efforts. Although the PCA notified both NAPARC and the CRC of its decision last year, the PCA didn't place a formal request to expel the CRC on this year's NAPARC agenda, assuming that last year's notification was sufficient. NAPARC chairman Rev. Jack Whytock of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church initially ruled that because the NAPARC agenda had already been adopted it was too late to add the proposal to expel the CRC. That might have been fine with Gilchrist. "We thought we had already communicated this to NAPARC last year and we thought the OPC was going to come here with something this year," said Gilchrist. "We wish to follow the OPC's lead." However, PCA delegate Rev. Larry Roff warned that postponing action at NAPARC could cause problems within the PCA. "My sense is that the intention of the assembly was that it would be dealt with here," said Roff. "It was my understanding that new business opens up any new business and not that each item of new business needs to be listed specifically on the docket." After seeking further advice from NAPARC secretary Rev. Donald Duff, who also serves as OPC stated clerk, Whytock ruled that the PCA proposal was legally on the NAPARC agenda and would be dealt with tomorrow as an item of new business. The Christian Reformed delegation was none too pleased by the introduction of a proposal to expel them from NAPARC. "It's disappointing the way it slipped onto the agenda," said CRC general secretary Dr. David Engelhard, noting that the PCA had not responded to a letter sent by the CRC synod explaining its reasons for allowing the ordination of women. "We were thinking that our letter would initiate some discussion or conversation on their part." "This lack of a conversation is not treating each other as full believers in Jesus Christ, just coming in there and placing this kind of resolution on the agenda," said Engelhard. Similar to but much smaller than the National Council of Churches, NAPARC counts seven conservative Reformed and Presbyterian denominations as full members. Tomorrow's vote could suspend or completely terminate CRC membership, take no action, or postpone the vote to next year. Any vote to suspend or terminate CRC membership will require a two-thirds vote and approval within three years by two thirds of the national synods or general assemblies of the member denominations. So far, at least three denominations are on record calling for discipline of the CRC. In addition to the PCA, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church voted this past June to suspend fraternal relations with the CRC and to terminate relations next year if the CRC synod does not repent of allowing women's ordination. At the NAPARC meeting today, the Korean American Presbyterian Church announced a previously unknown decision last June to, by unanimous vote, "suspend fraternal relations with the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) until such time as the said church repents of their sin and rescinds their position on opening church offices to women." The Reformed Church in the United States had a history of difficulties with the CRC's ordination of women and has sent observers to groups of churches which have seceded from the CRC over the women's ordination issue. If either the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church or the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America vote to discipline the CRC, the necessary two-thirds majority will be reached. Both the ARPC and the RPCNA have ordained women deacons for many years, but both are on record opposing the ordination of women ministers or ruling elders. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1994-017: Immigrant Korean Leader Criticizes Christian Reformed, Presbyterian Church in America Influence at NAPARC #1994-058: NAPARC Admits New Denomination; Thanks God for Christian Reformed Decision Against Ordaining Women; Rev. Myung Doh Kim Becomes First Korean Chairman of North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council; Reformed Church in the United States Admitted Amidst Strong Criticism of Alliance of Reformed Churches #1995-070: Christian Reformed Classes Permitted to Declare Church Order Ban on Women's Ordination "Inoperative"; Synod Decision Given Immediate Effect without Two-Year Ratification Process #1995-080: Presbyterian Church in America General Assembly Unanimously Warns CRC to "Repent and Rescind" Women in Office Decision #1996-065: Women in Office Leads Orthodox Presbyterians to Suspend Ties with CRC, Will Terminate in 1997 Unless CRC Changes #1996-076: CRC Synod Rejects 25 Overtures and Communications Calling for End to Classical Option on Ordination of Women Contact List: Rev. Donald Duff, Secretary, North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council 614 Roberts Ave., Glenside PA 19038-3711 O: (215) 956-0123 * H: (215) 887-4901 * FAX: (215) 957-6286 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 Dr. Paul Gilchrist, Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church in America 1852 Century Place, Suite 190, Atlanta GA 30345 O: (404) 320-3366 Rev. Myung Doh Kim, Academic Dean, Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary 1901 W. 166th St., Gardena, CA 90247 O: (310) 515-7696 * H: (310) 532-0328 * FAX: (310) 515-2747 Rev. Jack Whytock, Chairman, North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council 155 Charles Lutes Rd., Magnetic Hill, RR #7, Moncton, New Brunswick, E1C 8Z4 CANADA ------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-121a.txt .