Agenda for Synod 2016 Available Online

The Agenda for Synod 2016 is now available on the Christian Reformed Church website on the Synod Resources page or the Synod 2016 web page, where you can also sign up to receive Synod News.

Hard copies of the 670-page Agenda will be mailed to church councils later this month, as well as pastors who requested the Agenda via their annual minister Yearbook questionnaire.

Synod 2016 will convene on Friday, June 10, at 8 a.m. in joint worship with the conferees of Engage 2016: A Multiethnic Gathering at the College Chapel on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. 

The opening business session of synod will begin at 9 a.m. on June 10 in the Covenant Fine Arts Center Auditorium. Synod 2016 run through noon, Friday, June 17 at Calvin College.

To see what is coming before Synod this year, review the Agenda for Synod 2016. Information for delegates and advisers, past reports and Acts of Synod, and much more can be found on the Synod Resources page. You can also learn more about synod.

Three study committee reports have been submitted to this year’s synod. One is the Committee to Provide Pastoral Guidance re Same-Sex Marriage, which has both a majority and minority report going before synod.

Also, there are the Committee to Study Religious Persecution and Liberty report and the report from the Doctrine of Discovery Task Force.

Thirty-seven overtures, many addressing the Committee to Provide Pastoral Guidance re Same-Sex Marriage report, have been submitted for synod to review.

For news before and during synod, subscribe to Synod News and the CRC News weekly email. Or follow the CRCNA on Facebook or on Twitter (#crcsynod).

Want to discuss the matters coming before Synod 2016? Join the conversation or post your own discussion topic in the Synod section of The Network.

North Hills CRC, Troy, Mich. will serve as the convening church of synod. Rev. Randall Engle, pastor of North Hills CRC, will serve as the president pro-tem until synod is duly constituted and its four officers have been elected.

Led by North Hills CRC, a community-wide Synodical Service of Prayer and Praise will be held Sunday, June 12, 2016, at 3 p.m. at the College Chapel, Calvin College, 1835 Knollcrest Circle SE.

The congregations of the Christian Reformed Church in North America are requested to remember the synodical assembly in intercessory prayers on the Sundays of June 5 and 12.

“Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will equip the synodical delegates to serve in faith and obedience and will lead the Christian Reformed Church into new and challenging areas of ministry,” says Steven R. Timmermans, executive director of the CRC, in the Preface to the Agenda.

“May Synod 2016 be an experience in which we are further ‘built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit’ (Eph. 2:22) as we strive to be faithful to Christ’s call in our congregations and ministries.”

If you have questions about Synod 2016, please write [email protected] or call 800-272-9994.