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CRC May Host Global Meeting on Belhar

August 2, 2013
Board of Trustees members laid hands on Joel Boot as Synod 2013 delegates prayed for him.

Board of Trustees members laid hands on Joel Boot as Synod 2013 delegates prayed for him.

Karen Huttenga

The Christian Reformed Church hopes to host an international, ecumenical gathering of denominations in Grand Rapids, Mich., early next year “to discuss and define together what exactly an Ecumenical Faith Declaration is,” says Rev. Joel Boot, executive director of the CRC.

Boot says several arrangements need to be put into place before such a meeting can be held, but he is optimistic the meeting will occur.

Synod 2012 created the Ecumenical Faith Declaration category, says Boot, after debating and deciding not to make the Belhar Confession a fourth confession of the CRC.

The Belhar Confession was created by Reformed Christians in South Africa in 1982 as a response to the sin of apartheid. Churches in South Africa have asked churches worldwide to adopt the Belhar as a confession.

Several churches, including the Reformed Church in America, have adopted it as a confession.

Other churches have discussed it and turned  it down, saying it does not match their confessional standards.

In adopting the Ecumenical Faith Declaration category, the CRC has in many ways plowed new ground, opening a path that other churches might use, says Boot.

But there is work to do.

“We created this new category for the Belhar Confession, but it has not been determined what that category means,” said Boot.

Boot made his remarks as he sketched the actions of Synod 2013 during a town hall meeting at the Grand Rapids, Mich. office of the CRC.

The issue of the Belhar, he said, came before Synod 2013 in June.

In asking for clarification, the Agenda for Synod 2013 explained the issue: “The complexity of confessional standards is increased within the CRC by the adoption of the new category … It would be helpful for the CRC to engage in a deeper reflection upon the nature and role of documents that are or could be adopted as ecumenical faith declarations.”

In addressing the matter, Synod 2013 decided not to take on the task of outlining specific criteria for the category.

Instead, synod voted to hold more discussion about the criteria within the denomination and with partner churches around the globe through its Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee.

As it turns out, churches in South Africa that created and have promoted the Belhar as a confession are now showing interest in learning more about — and possibly helping to define and put to use — the category that synod adopted, says Boot, who traveled to South Africa earlier this year with Rev. Peter Borgdorff, deputy executive director of the CRC.

As it is, says Boot, churches in the CRC are asked to use the Belhar in worship and teaching and yet have no formal way of determining the difference between it and, for instance, the Heidelberg Catechism.

Giving greater clarity in defining the differences and similarities would help CRC churches and may possibly offer churches outside of the CRC a way to address the Belhar, Boot said.

Greater definition could mean that a category such as this would be “in harmony with biblical principles, global in scope, relevant for Christian living, not already covered by current confessions, and beneficial for the denomination’s ecumenical relations,” says the report in the agenda for Synod 2013.

“I think this was a gift from God when we created this category,” said Boot.

“We may now have the chance for greater collaboration as Reformed Christians from all over the world come together to think about this category and help us to decide how to put the Belhar into practice.”