It is amazing how many people in the CRC believe that we can change our stance on the role of women without suffering ill effects elsewhere. Amazing because the arguments advanced for opening the door to women in office are virtually identical to those employed to promote more liberal views on other topics such as, […]
Confusion About Leadership The most recent Christian Reformed study committee to deal with the troublesome questions about women’s eligibility to serve in church offices had to study the Bible’s teaching about the “headship” to which God had called men. Although the questions about this matter had arisen in connection with church offices, the committee also […]
Dear Rev . DeJong, In the September Outlook you quote Rev. Vander Kam on page 8 to the effect that “Ecclesiology, has not been taught. . . in the department of Dogmatics for the last 15 years!” I do not wi sh to take exception to the statement as such, but the implication seems to be […]
Many readers of the Christian Reformed Churches’ Banner were likely startled to find it’s September 17, 1984, issue largely devoted to the discussion of homosexuality. It appears that the successful effort to override the Biblical prohibitions of women in church office may now be followed by a comparable effort to break down the churches’ traditional […]
The magazine Christian Renewal recently contained an insert of a speech re: Women in Office given by the Rev. Raymond Sikkema to an elders’ Conference. In an appendix. he gives a review/critique of a Report given by a committee on the matter of women in ecclesiastical office in the United Presbyterian Church U.S.A. This Report […]
Shirking Men Incite Officious Women Arthur Besteman Recently I visited with two young men who are completing their first year of service as officebearers in the Christian Reformed Church. The one is serving as a member of the consistory of a large, suburban church, the other holds office in an average size rural congregation. […]
WOMEN IN THE PULPIT Dear Rev. De Jong The back page of your February issue contains a small news item concerning pulpit supply policies at Calvin Theological Seminary. It indicates that Calvin Seminary solicited requests for female students to exhort in non-Christian Reformed Churches which wished to use their services. This notice did appear one […]
“Watershed” has been defined as a “critical decisive point; a turning point.” If that definition is true, then we may have before us at the Christian Reformed Synod of 1981 a “watershed.” After eight years of tossing the ball called “Women in ecclesiastical office” into opposing courts, the CR denomination must at last settle the […]
One of the issues which the Christian Reformed Church will be facing shortly is that of the propriety of “women in ecclesiastical office.” For decades this question has plagued churches throughout the world. After some initial resistance by those who dared to stand lip and be counted in the church courts, one denomination after another has […]
I have here tonight a copy of a paper called, “The Lutheran News.” The date is Nov. 15, today. The head on the lead article reads: Michigan Congregation leaves Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Charges that Missouri Synod tolerates attacks on Bible. Officials disagree—defend Seminary professors. The congregation is the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church of Wayland Michigan. On […]