Albert Hamstra, former Asia regional director and director of special projects for World Missions in the Christian Reformed Church, died July 13.

Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Albuquerque, N.M., had seven members die this past year. The remaining small congregation celebrated those lives all at once Aug. 8.

The ministry of Disability Concerns, a partnership of the Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America, featured speakers with a focus on inclusion in its 2021 training.

A formal request to the Christian Reformed Church’s broadest assembly said the process to appeal decisions “is not appellant friendly and is church leader protective when allegations are raised concerning abuse.”

Lucas Van Berkel, who calls West End Christian Reformed Church in Edmonton, Alta., his home congregation, competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games as a member of Canada’s men’s volleyball team.

After a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others estimated more than a million children orphaned as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, supportive agencies are calling Christians to action.

Pastor Shawn Sikkema, serving on East Colfax Avenue in Aurora, Colo., is close to realizing a dream for his ministry: a safe, comfortable, place that the neighborhood’s vulnerable population can share.

A humble man with a servant’s heart, pastor and theology professor Carl Gerhard Kromminga died June 25.

The board of directors of the CRCNA Canada Corporation is hopeful that its concerns about denomination restructuring will be taken seriously as changes are implemented, and it’s proposing the Council of Delegates appoint more Canadian members.

CRC congregations in British Columbia use resources of the CRC to continue on paths of reconciliation with Indigenous communities this summer.

Canadian board members speak to questions about a change of vision—there is none, they say—and moving ahead with structural changes proposed in the Structure and Leadership Taskforce report from May.

Just over 140 Christian Reformed churches, 530 congregations overall, have contributed to an ongoing study about how worship practices of U.S. churches were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A farmers market, running twice a month on the grounds of New Era (Mich.) Christian Reformed Church, provides a community-connecting place for live music, children’s activities, and even a vaccination clinic.

At its General Conference on July 9, the African Methodist Episcopal Church resolved to appoint a committee of 40 members to make recommendations to the denomination about matters of human sexuality, including how they relate to people who are LGBTQ. 

The gathering’s organizers said the internationally focused event provides a rare example of bipartisan support in an era known for partisan rift.

“Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America must be above reproach in their walk and Christlike in their character. Those who profess an identity ... that undermines or contradicts their identity as new creations in Christ ... are not qualified for ordained office.”

Meadowlands Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Ancaster, Ont., passed a mandate for a new ministry team in May, forming a group it believes to be the first of its kind in the denomination.

Habitus Community, started by Christian Reformed pastor Phil Reinders, is helping Christians to devote themselves “to the recovery of regular but radical Christianity” by living a “rule of life.”

Citing differing ideas about future “goals and objectives” the Christian Reformed Church in North America Canada Corporation said Darren Roorda, Canadian Ministries director, will no longer serve in that position, effective immediately.

In a judicial review of a government of Canada decision about eligibility for Canadian summer jobs funding, the Federal Court of Canada found in favor of Redeemer University.

A Lifeway Research study, which analyzed church data from 34 Protestant denominations and groups, found that 4,500 churches closed in 2019, while about 3,000 new congregations were started.

At its Covenant Annual Connection on June 25 the Evangelical Covenant Church became the latest Protestant denomination in the United States to repudiate the doctrine that provided a theological justification for the “discovery” and domination by European Christians of lands already inhabited by Indigenous peoples.

Once a month since January, volunteers from Brookside Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., have set up noon hour drive-thru prayer to address heightened tensions and serve their community.