Canadian Classis Drops Call for Delegated Canadian Assembly

A steering committee commissioned by Classis Quinte, a regional assembly of Christian Reformed congregations in Ontario, voted Dec. 4 to stop pursuing a Canada-wide conversation among churches. Saying, “There is insufficient evidence that classes across Canada share areas of mutual concern to substantiate a special gathering; the Canadian National Gathering is aiming to have conversations of mutual concern that unify Canadian ministry; (and) there is not a demonstrable need to have a voting/delegated body distinct from the Canadian National Gathering, joined across Canada,” the steering committee decided, “The Canadian Wide Gathering being presented by Classis Quinte (under church order Article 44) be concluded as inviable.”

The Canadian National Gathering takes place in Canada every three years, arranged by Canadian ministry staff of the Christian Reformed Church and steered by a team of leaders representing each of the Canadian classes. The next event is May 28-31 at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont.

Quinte passed a proposal for a call for a special assembly in September 2024. It sought steering committee participants from other Canadian classes in spring 2025 and asked the classes to address specific questions about the proposal at their fall 2025 meetings. Ryan Braam, a pastor in Classis Quinte who served as the steering committee chair, communicated the findings in a December letter to Canadian churches and classes.

“The steering team has met and strategized throughout the 2025 year to determine the direction and/or viability of this initiative,” Braam wrote. “Each Canadian Classis was invited to provide feedback via a survey to determine what the areas of mutual concern across Canada are. All of the data received was compiled into a single document totaling 28 pages.” Braam said the team used Adobe AI “to summarize the wide swath of perspectives” and included the two-page summary in his letter.

The summary included bullet points under six categories: unifying identity, binational nature of the CRCNA, distinctly Canadian ministries (such as Indigenous ministry centers and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank), differences in ministry context, advancing the kingdom of God, and mutual concerns.

“Declining membership and church attendance” and “secularization, government interference—e.g., charitable status challenges, Medical Assistance In Dying, (the province of Quebec’s) public prayer restrictions—and cultural shifts” were summarized as “significant concerns” and “threats to the church's mission.” Areas of focus were “Indigenous reconciliation, immigration, and leadership development,” the summary said.

Al Postma, executive director, Canada, for the Christian Reformed Church in North America, was invited and was present for the Quinte steering team meetings, including the discussion on deciding to not continue. He noted that the collected data from classes included some gathered in aggregate during classis discussion and some more specific responses from church councils or individuals, as different classes chose to engage the survey in different ways. Postma said he is committed to ensuring this data is part of the conversations at the Canadian National Gathering.

Postma said the Canadian National Gathering steering committee with one representative from every Canadian classis is putting together the content for the gathering which will be organized along several tracks that the group has determined to be important for ongoing ministry in Canada. Postma said material would be released soon requesting that classes send participants based on their wisdom, knowledge, and ability to contribute to conversations in the various tracks. The overarching theme that the steering team decided on for the 2026 gathering is Foundation to Future.

“My hope is that our Canadian national identity can reflect a strong integration of local, regional, national, and global relationships as layers of a church's identity,” Postma said, mentioning he's noticed that congregations reflect different approaches, with some more focused on the local church and some for whom being “Canadian” is very important. For those particularly “focused on their local church experience, we want to ensure that they are able to see the value of a broader relationship; for those hyper-focused on national identity it will be good to look intentionally at their local experience and how that actually connects to other churches across Canada,” he said.

The 2023 national gathering theme was Hearts Exchanged; From Emptiness to Fullness was theme for 2019; and the 2016 inaugural gathering wove a theme of Keeping in Step with the Spirit throughout the weekend, according to a CRC communications report from the time.

Classis Quinte’s proposal for an ecclesiastical assembly, first raised at the May 2024 classis meeting and noted to be coming as a report that September, was developed at the same time that a group, then called “Toward CRC Canada,” was organizing for a Canadian CRC ecclesiastically distinct from the CRCNA.

A request (overture) from Meadowlands Fellowship CRC to Synod 2025 to “Envision the CRCNA as two distinct Christian Reformed Churches, one in Canada and one in the United States,” was rejected by that synod by a vote of 171 to 3 with one abstention.

Now called Toward Canada, the group is forming a new expression of Reformed churches in Canada, launched at a summit in November 2025 and progressing with a Western Canadian Gathering this month. The number of churches connected to the new movement is not clear. Twelve Canadian congregations of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (counting from submitted classis minutes) are in the formal process of disaffiliation from the denomination or have recently disaffiliated, including Meadowlands Fellowship and the Christian Reformed Church of St. Albert, Alta., which is hosting the group’s western gathering Jan. 17. Toward Canada reported that attendees of the November summit came from more than 45 different congregations.