Celebrating joyful moments like the receiving of candidates for ministry and addressing weighty matters like requests for church discipline, the Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates met June 15 and 16.
Synod 2021
Synod is the annual leadership meeting of the Christian Reformed Church. The CRC's Council of Delegates, which acts on behalf of synod in between annual meetings, canceled Synod 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In its place the Council met in special session June 15 and 16, 2021. The Banner's coverage of those meetings, its Guide to the Agenda for Synod 2021 and supplemental reports, and its summaries of three study reports (discussion now postponed to Synod 2022), are below. Archived livestreams of the special meeting's plenary sessions are available from CRC communications.
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Responding to a request from a Christian Reformed congregation to Synod 2021, the CRC’s Council of Delegates has asked the denomination’s executive director to develop a mechanism that would allow LGBTQ voices to be heard by delegates to the next synod with regard to the human sexuality report.
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In place of Synod 2021 the Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates, with some discussion, left unchanged an earlier decision to remove adoption agency Bethany Christian Services from its list of approved organizations for offerings.
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Over an online video meeting, streamed to YouTube, the Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates received new candidates for ministry and blessed them as they take up God’s assigned work.
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Acting in lieu of Synod 2021 the Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates chose to defer requests for discipline and not rescind an earlier letter of concern. In a new communication it urges synod to “be mindful of the three marks of the true and vital church.”
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The Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates received a final report on work toward preventing abuse of power and requested a review of the denomination’s current appeal process.
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Two regional groups of churches in Canada had asked to stop moves toward restructuring. Considering those requests on behalf of synod, the Council said no.
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In 2020 a member congregation of the Christian Reformed Church ordained to the office of deacon a woman in a same-sex marriage. The action prompted concerned communications from other member churches. In lieu of synod the CRC’s Council of Delegates will address the formal communications, June 15.
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A user-friendly guide to the documents produced for Synod 2021, parts of which will be addressed in a special meeting of the Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates held in lieu of synod.
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The Christian Reformed Church’s annual general assembly is canceled for 2021; instead the Council of Delegates will meet in a special session to address parts of the Agenda that cannot wait until Synod 2022.
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For the second year in a row the ongoing difficulties and circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused the Christian Reformed Church’s Council of Delegates to cancel the denomination’s annual synod.
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The report of the Christian Reformed Church's Committee to Articulate a Foundation-Laying Biblical Theology of Human Sexuality affirms the denomination’s historical position on homosexuality and offers scriptural and pastoral guidance on a range of sexual matters.
