Synod 2022

After ruling that seven minutes of the official recording of the June 16 morning session of Synod 2022 should be excised from the public version of that recording, officers of Synod 2022 reversed that decision. The unedited video was posted June 21.

At the close of the Christian Reformed Church’s general assembly, officers Aaron Vriesman, Jose Rayas, Derek Buikema, and Luann Sankey shared brief thoughts.

Executive director Colin Watson Sr. presented plaques for three churches celebrating 150 years, and synod did a lot of other things as it met June 10-16, 2022.

The oldest and youngest delegates at Synod 2022 are from the same classis and sat beside each other the whole week.

Synod delegates worked through a series of proposals as a response to Classis Greater Los Angeles’ overture to “oppose white supremacy and systemic racism.”

Debra Chee and Evelyn Bennally are the first two women to be ordained as commissioned pastors through the Christian Reformed Church’s Red Mesa classis Leadership Development Network program.

For many years, holding two services on Sunday was a mark of the Christian Reformed Church. A change to Church Order has ended that era.

In an extremely rare move, delegate Dominic Palacios was judged to have violated the rules of decorum during discussions about the human sexuality report.

Choosing not to appoint a committee to help define what is meant in Church Order Article 28-a, “ecclesiastical matters” are left up to interpretation in the Christian Reformed Church.

The general assembly of the CRC put in place a committee to see that the Grand Rapids, Mich., congregation complies with synod’s rulings on same-sex marriage.

LGBTQ allies, dressed in all black, gathered to lament the decisions made at synod.

Church of the Servant, a Christian Reformed congregation celebrating 50 years in 2023, will be host church for the next synod.

Delegates at Synod 2022 questioned Zachary King and learned more about his views before appointing him to be the general secretary of the Christian Reformed Church.

With little discussion, the Christian Reformed Church’s general assembly adopted a new structure, appointing a general secretary for the binational church and recognizing top executives in Canada and the U.S.

Synod 2022, the general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church, decided it wanted a year for member churches to review...

Colin Watson Sr., serving as the Christian Reformed Church’s executive director since February 2020, and John Bolt, deputy executive director and chief financial officer, are leaving their jobs July 1, having already delayed retirement for over a year.

In the tradition of the church and in the Bible itself there are many ways to portray the meaning of the cross.

“The word unchastity in our confessions has to have meaning,” said one delegate to Synod 2022. The assembly of the Christian Reformed Church affirmed its meaning includes “adultery, premarital sex, extra-marital sex, polyamory, pornography, and homosexual sex.”

Jose Rayas is the first Hispanic pastor to be elected president of the synod of the Christian Reformed Church, and Harold Caicedo noted other “historic” moments at the general assembly.

Delegates to Synod 2022 voted 74% in favor of upholding the Christian Reformed Church’s traditional stance regarding homosexuality and same-sex relationships. It still has to decide whether to give the decision confessional status.

Synod delegates walked from their session to dinner through a group of more than 100 people waving rainbow flags and singing.

Synod 2022 prefaced its discussion of human sexuality with prayers of lament and grief.

Seeing the confessions held by the Christian Reformed Church as clear on the teaching of the cross, Synod 2022 determined denying it is “a serious deviation” in doctrine.