Synod 2019 Officers

As one of its first actions, Synod 2019 elected four officers to lead them through the coming week's deliberations. The officers chosen have more than 25 years of synod experience between them and reflect the geographic diversity of the denominaiton. In addition, for the first time ever, a deacon delegate was elected as an officer.

Rev. William Koopmans was selected to serve as president of Synod 2019.  A pastor from Brantford, Ont., he has served in many capacities for the denomination, including nine previous times as a delegate to synod, and two previous times as synod president.

Rev. Thea Leunk, a pastor at Eastern Avenue CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich., was elected vice president. This is Leunk's fourth synod, and fourth time serving on synod's executive committee. Like Koopmans, she has also served the denomination in various other roles in the past. 

First clerk of Synod 2019 is Rev. José Rayas. Rayas has been to synod 12 times previously, and has also served on the executive committee. From Classis Arizona, he is pastor of Valley Ridge Community CRC, Socorro, Tex.

While deacons have been delegates to synod since 2016, they have not been elected to the executive committee of synod until this year. Melissa Van Dyk, a deacon from Classis British Columbia North-West, was selected to serve as second clerk. This is her fourth synod and she is also active in her local church and classis level. 

Following the election of officers and the adoption of the Program Committee Report, delegates were dismissed into their advisory committees. They will reconvene for worship at 8:15 a.m on Saturday, June 15.

For continuous coverage of Synod 2019 including the live webcast, news, video recordings, photos, liveblog, social media links, and more visit www.crcna.org/synod.