The following will not win Journey any friends in some quarters. They will say that it is bad enough to publicize such events, much less to make light of them. On the other hand, we wonder when such people are going to be more concerned about the “dirt” than the discoverer! We’re under no illusions. It could be a good while!

In a surprising but telling development, the workings of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod (RES) have been further complicated. This time, the parties involved are not so much those of Europe. (The RES has been embroiled in a question over the orthodoxy of the Dutch GKN church, which has welcomed unrepentant homosexuals into its churches in varying capacities) as of America.

The Grand Rapids Press (11-15-86) ran a story entitled “The Bright Side to South Africa.” But South Africa was not the “Story,” but the mere context of the story. It appears that somehow the RES, and the Rev. Paul Schrotenboer in particular (its General Secretary), received an invitation from the Pope to join in the interfaith service in Assisi, Italy, during late October. This was the “World Day of Prayer for Peace” which caught the world media’s attention a month ago. Involved were: “Christians, Moslems, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Zoroastrians, African animists, Sikhs, Japanese Shintoists, Jains, Baha‘is, and an American Indian.”

The plot thickens when Schrotenboer does not go because of a prior engagement in South Africa. So what to do? Answer? Send Mrs. Schrotenboer! And so Mrs. Bernice Schrotenboer attended the world day of prayer! She is reported to have said to GRP, “I went for him, as I have in the past. He couldn’t be in Italy at that time and I could.”

For those with scruples against the implications of such an event, it is evident that Mrs. Schrotenboer was not an “official” representative of the RES. She was an unofficial official. . . . But lest anyone think that Journey is being overly critical here, let us relate some of Mrs. Schrotenboer’s conversation with the GRP.

One of our immediate questions was, “Did the dear woman actually pray at this sordidly syncretistic affair?” What was her posture in the midst of the two-hundred or so participants? How did she carry herself as the Dali Lama, the exiled Buddhist “king-god” of Tibet, and Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, along with the Pope, petitioned their various deities?

The answer comes back loud and clear. “We were all praying, each in our own way, for a more peaceful world,” said Mrs. Schrotenboer.

We thought, perhaps, Mrs. Schrotenboer was there as a secret critic. Perhaps, upon returning stateside, she would tell the reformed community all the gory details. Perhaps she would contrast such nonsense with the reformed world and life view, or with the exclusivities of covenant theology. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps . . .

Mrs. Schrotenboer related, in a way—the words sound as if they are bundled together in a kind of joyful naivete—that, “I thought it was a very worthwhile experience. We tried to focus the attention of the whole world on prayer. As St. Paul says in Scripture, more things are wrought by prayer than anything else.” Yes Bernice . . . but the Dali Lama???

It would appear that Mrs. Schrotenboer was far from an unwilling participant. At Assisi, the paper reports, “(S)he and the other religious representatives fasted (emphasis ours – REK) for an afternoon and said prayers in their native languages. In a gesture of solidarity and support for the gathering, several of the world’s warring governments and insurgent groups set down their arms for the day.”

“It was a wonderful and moving experience,” Schrotenboer is reported to have told the paper. “I’m glad I had a chance to attend . . . . At the end of the service, we were all given olive branches and asked to wave them in the air as a sign of peace. That was quite a thing to see.”

Was this a moment of unwary candor? Just what exactly does it represent? At least one gets an insider’s view of what passes for reformed thinking, at the “highest” levels today. And especially what passes for “good, reformed ecumenical thinking today!” We think it is downright astounding.

The Schrotenboer’s are not numbered amongst the “raving-liberal-part” of the Christian Reformed Church. Yet the Rev. Schrotenboer has certainly not identified with the conservative side of the church either. He’s, I suppose, a “progressive,” of one sort or another. And undoubtedly a kindly man. But the heart of the reformed faith used to be truth, and not humanistic “nice.”

Many questions remain: Who financed the trip? The RES? Does the RES find it suitable that a woman, even a godly woman (can we say), would represent them . . . unofficially-officially anywhere (?), much less at the beckoning of the Pope? And what of the address that Mrs. Schrotenboer gave at Rome’s “Christian World Communion” before going to Assisi? Could this be considered “preaching on her husband’s behalf?”

Yes, many questions remain. But unfortunately this one doesn’t. The RES, of which such churches as the OPC and CRC are members, has a female globetrotter-delegate doing something on its behalf in Assisi. She’s got a plaque (from the Pope) to prove it. And it was great fun.

Reprinted by permission from the November-December Journey magazine. Rev. Richard E. Knodel, its editor, is the pastor of the Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg, Virginia. He has written previous articles for us: “A Calvinist in ‘Farwell-Land” (Oct., 1984), and “A Tale of Two Preachers” (Nov., 1985).