Synod 2025 Concludes

June 25, 2025
Synod delegates sing “To God Be The Glory” at the end of a plenary session.
Synod delegates sing “To God Be The Glory” at the end of a plenary session.
Steven Herppich

For seven days 188 men and women gathered at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont., to pray, discuss, deliberate, and discern together about matters related to the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

During this meeting of Synod 2025, several important topics were discussed, including virtual churches, medically assisted suicide, the appropriateness of handguns at church assemblies, the CRCNA’s unity as a binational denomination, and the need for church planting and church renewal. 

Synod also revised the mandate of its denominational magazine, The Banner, asked officebearers to affirm the Covenant for Officebearers at every classis meeting, and defined different levels of synodical decisions and pronouncements. 

“Synod 2025 did a lot of important work, both clarifying the decisions of the past few years but also painting a picture of the future ministry of which we want to be a part,” said Zachary King, general secretary. “The church is about more than one issue, and Synod 2025 helped to remind us of that as we talked about important issues and how we can best reflect Christ in the face of them.” 

While these and many other administrative and ministry matters were decided at Synod 2025, the proceedings also included presentations from ReFrame Ministries and Resonate Global Mission, a reminder of the upcoming 150th anniversary of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary, and the celebration of 19 new candidates for the ministry of the Word. 

“It was very obvious to everyone who participated in Synod 2025 that these proceedings were surrounded and undergirded with prayer,” said King. “Dozens of prayer intercessors attended a pre-synod prayer gathering and were present on-site to pray with individuals, advisory committees, and for the plenary sessions. Their intercession was truly felt.” 

In addition, approximately 1,000 people tuned in to the synod webcast to listen to deliberations.

At the end of the week, synod president Rev. Stephen Terpstra reminded delegates and those watching that “we are called, as we go as Christ’s representatives, to meet other people on the road—people who are walking confused with rejected hearts. And what do we do? We open the word and show them Christ.”

He encouraged everyone to “go home with overwhelming confidence, hope, and expectation of what God is doing and what God will do.”

Coverage of the decisions of Synod 2025 has been provided by The Banner. A list of stories from the first five days of synod is available here. In addition, a list of stories from the remainder of synod follows:

Kristen deRoo VanderBerg, CRC Communications