RCA Synod Affirms Growing Ties with CRC

The General Synod 2013 of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), which finished its five-day meeting on the campus of Central College in Pella, Iowa, on Tuesday, addressed a number of issues, including growing collaboration  between the RCA and the Christian Reformed Church.

On Monday, CRC executive director Joel Boot spoke to Synod and attributed the partnership to "the power and influence and presence of God through his Holy Spirit."

"While there has been collaboration and corroboration and conversations for decades between us, it is going at a pace and with an intensity that we haven't seen before," he said.

"It is rising from the grassroots level up, and not just from the top down. And it is our conviction, our deepening conviction, that this is a matter of obedience. This is a matter of the Holy Spirit pushing sometimes, pulling sometimes, and just patting us on the back sometimes, and saying keep going together."

RCA general secretary Tom De Vries highlighted many ways the denominations are already working together and urged continued partnership.

On this issue, synod affirmed the growing ties between the denominations and signed a memorandum of understanding with World Renew for disaster response. The CRC’s Synod 2013 signed the memorandum and discussed greater collaboration  between the denominations at its meeting as well.

In other business:

• Delegates overwhelmingly approved "Transformed and Transforming: Radically Following Christ in Mission Together," a new goal to guide RCA ministry and mission over the next 15 years.
• Through video and on-stage interviews, delegates heard leaders throughout the denomination share their experiences with revitalization, multiplication, leadership, discipleship, mission, and a multiracial future freed from racism.
• In response to the "Way Forward Task Force," synod voted to appoint a working group to come up with “resources that will encourage grace-filled conversations among those holding varying understandings” with regard to homosexuality; it denied a recommendation to explore constitutional changes that would enable congregations and ministers to separate from the RCA "without recriminations such as forfeiture of property."
•  Synod adopted three new liturgies celebrating the sacrament of baptism; the liturgies will go to classes for approval and, if approved, will be ratified at General Synod 2014. Synod also ratified the decision to remove the "conscience clauses"

For more coverage, go to www.rca.org/synod for full news stories, video coverage, and photos from the event.