Synod 2025 received the presentation of 19 candidates for ministry with a joyful service that exhorted the candidates to live in unity, humility, and love as they set out to be leaders in the Christian Reformed Church. Seven of the 19 candidates were able to attend in person, accompanied by family and friends. The presentation was livestreamed.
Led by the director of Candidacy Susan LaClear, with Scripture readings from members of the candidacy committee Judy Cook and Felix Fernandez, the presentation highlighted Ephesians 4. Candidates were urged to live a life worthy of their calling, and general secretary Zachary King prayed a blessing from Ephesians 3, that these candidates “may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
LaClear noted the small number of candidates this year, down from 25 in 2024, but told synod she doesn’t yet think it’s a downward trend overall and the list for 2026 is larger at this point. This year there were two women among the 19 candidates, and in 2024 there were five.
Calvin Seminary president Jul Medenblik addressed the candidates with a personal message, comparing the blessing of new ministers to work in the church to joining two people in marriage, an event he will witness next week when his daughter and son-in-law marry. Sharing about his daughter’s love for Dr. Who and the time-travelling TARDIS, Medenblik paraphrased, “Ministry is bigger on the inside than the outside.” Like the sacraments, water in baptism and juice in the Lord’s supper, there is so much more. On the outside, it’s a trickle of water, inside “it is a sacrament, a means of grace where the hand of God comes to that child through you.”
Likewise, “Grace is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It's bigger than sin. It is not something that we do or say, it is a gift.” And grace “can take us from the usual of loving self, to the love of God, and the love of one another.”
Synod president Stephen Terpstra then invited delegates and family and friends of the candidates to surround them in prayer.
The ceremony ended in singing “Holy Spirit Living Breath of God” before enjoying cake on the Redeemer University campus quad.
Synod 2025, the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is meeting June 13-19 on the campus of Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont. Find daily coverage from The Banner at TheBanner.org/synod. Visit crcna.org/synod for the agenda, advisory reports, recordings of plenary sessions, and to subscribe to the daily Synod News email.
About the Author
Isabelle Brown is a writer from Brampton, Ontario and a student at Redeemer University, where she is a reporter for The Crown. Her non-writing interests include painting and sketching.