Church unions in the next decade or so?

Possible church unions in the next decade or so

  • CRC and RCA

    Votes: 12 48.0%
  • URC and CanRc

    Votes: 2 8.0%
  • URC and OPC

    Votes: 5 20.0%
  • OPC and BPC

    Votes: 1 4.0%
  • OPC and RCUS

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • ARP and EPC

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • OPC and PCA

    Votes: 2 8.0%
  • PCUSA and UCC

    Votes: 5 20.0%
  • FRC and HRC

    Votes: 6 24.0%
  • ELCA and PCUSA and TEC and UCC supermerger

    Votes: 7 28.0%
  • The two cumberlands

    Votes: 5 20.0%
  • ECO and EPC

    Votes: 2 8.0%
  • None of the above

    Votes: 4 16.0%

  • Total voters
    25
  • Poll closed .
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I posted the original and am surprised none of these seem any closer. My guesses:
  • CRC and RCA are closest
  • PCUSA/UCC probably won’t bother before both die out
  • Maybe (not on this list) Episcopal and the liberal wing of the United Methodists.
I agree on hoping for a realignment-
  • Progressive PCA to ECO
  • Evangelical PCA with the EPC
  • Conservative PCA with the OPC (and ARP and BPC?)
I can’t say I actually see these happening.

I don’t know where the independent Evangel and Vanguard presbyteries may end up.

Outside the Protestant circles I could see in the next 50 years -
  • Liberal EO under Constantinople reuniting with Rome, then maybe Episcopal and Church of England
  • Traditional Catholics might break away, even be recognized by the more traditional EO (Russia, Antioch, etc.)
EDIT: Aren’t the Cumberland Churches already set to merge on a certain date?
 
We don't chant the psalms -- we sing them. But the joint URC/CanRC project would have seen 150 Psalms with Genevan tunes, but also each one with one or more alternative melodies. Not everybody in the CanRC is a fan of the Genevan tunes, and certainly most of them are a hard sell in the URC.

Hi Rev. Bredenhof. We recently joined the URC congregation in Listowel. I really like the Genevan tunes but some of them are tricky as I did not grow up with them. My wife is familiar with them as she taught in a Can-Ref school outside Hamilton for a few years and attended Streetlight Christian Church.

While I don't foresee the URC and CanRef merging any time soon (and I'm not sure they should), I note quite a lot of unity in the Southwestern Ontario area. The youth are marrying one another, there are lots of pulpit exchanges, and memberships are easily transferred. Although there is not uniformity, there is unity here.

On another note related to the poll, I believe the HRC and FRC hold their synods together. They are very close.
 
Hi Rev. Bredenhof. We recently joined the URC congregation in Listowel. I really like the Genevan tunes but some of them are tricky as I did not grow up with them. My wife is familiar with them as she taught in a Can-Ref school outside Hamilton for a few years and attended Streetlight Christian Church.

Neat. I've probably met your wife then at some point or other. I served in Hamilton from 2009-2015 and during that time I preached at Streetlight quite a few times.

While I don't foresee the URC and CanRef merging any time soon (and I'm not sure they should), I note quite a lot of unity in the Southwestern Ontario area. The youth are marrying one another, there are lots of pulpit exchanges, and memberships are easily transferred. Although there is not uniformity, there is unity here.
Agreed. Just in Hamilton, we always had our Ascension Day services together with the Rehoboth URC. We had good fellowship and mutual respect. What took the engine off the tracks of federational unity was mainly forces outside of Canada.
 
An OPC/PCA merger will probably never happen: (1) too many bitter feelings after the joining-and-receiving disaster of the '80s or '90s. (2) Since the PCA continues to drift to the theological left, that makes a merger even less likely.
 
My great-grandfather was an RCA minister, and my grandfather (his son-in-law) was in the CRC. They never really got on too well, and I recall denominational differences did play something of a role.

In honor of their memory, I go on record as opposing merger #1.
 
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Since the ECO distictive is basically anti-gay, where would the pro-gay PCA churches end up?
Sadly, I fear the social justice PCA types will run back to the PCUSA.
Once you have learned to twist the Bible to be pro-LGBTQ, it is just a short walk back to the PCUSA.
 
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