The meeting of the Canadian Reformed and United Reformed Churches to propose a common church order, held November 4–6, 2003 at the United Reformed Church of Dutton, Michigan. Present were: Dr. Nelson Kloosterman, Rev. William Pols, Rev. Ronald Scheuers, Rev. Raymond Sikkema and Mr. Harry Van Gurp, representing the United Reformed Churches in North America […]

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Philippians 3:15–16 By the time you read this devotional summer will be well under way. […]

The man behind the ticket counter at the Kalamazoo Airport asked for our birth certificate or passport. Mr. Visser, the Elder delegate from our church, and I had neither. Our wives offered to run home to get them, after all the airport is only fifteen minutes away and we were over an hour early. “No, […]

Both present members of the Christian Reformed Church and former members take a keen interest in that denomination’s Synod which took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan this past June. One hundred eighty-eight delegates from forty-seven classes in the United States and Canada met at Calvin College to work through the lengthy agenda. As an outsider, […]

The Overtures It seems best to continue by dealing with the overtures in the order in which they appeared in the agenda. Overtures 1 and 2 were brought with the intention of changing the church order in very specific ways. Overture #1, coming from classis Western Canada, asked to add two words to the text […]

General Synod Chatham 2004 of the Canadian Reformed Churches existed for two weeks (Feb.10 – 21, 2004). The delegates had been chosen by regional Synods East and West, but most certainly felt themselves appointed by God to deliberate and decide on all the issues put before them. Surely each individual member felt themselves inadequate to […]