Appointments to OSJ Committee Delayed

A committee to support and guide the Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice has no members appointed to it yet. The CRC’s Council of Delegates couldn’t approve names of those to be appointed because classis stated clerks had been overlooked in the nominating process.

Synod 2018, the annual leadership meeting of the CRC, instructed the Council to establish the committee. (The Council of Delegates acts on behalf of synod between its meetings.) That synod had a spirited debate about the role of OSJ and whether it was venturing beyond its mandate of Christian advocacy to actual lobbying by calling on church members to support specific legislation.

The Council approved the composition of the committee at its October 2018 meeting. Nominations were to be sought by several avenues, including soliciting names from U.S. stated clerks. Those are the people who coordinate the work of classes (regional groups of churches). But that had been overlooked so appointments to the committee have been delayed.