Evangelical and Reformed Synod

[yeutter]

Reverend Erastus Long, the Rector of Paul's Chapel in Lexington North Carolina confirmed to me that he and his network of Reformed Congregations are leaving the United Episcopal Church of North America.

I expect Rev. Long, in the very near future, to be consecrated the Bishop of this church federation which is calling itself the Evangelical and Reformed Churches.

Rev. Long told me that they didn’t want to leave. Rev. Long "was voted by the Diocese of the East unanimously as sufferagen bishop in charge" of these former German Reformed churches that were coming into the Diocese. Rev. Long came to believe that he would never receive the necessary approval of the House of Bishops to be allowed to be consecrated, and serve as a bishop in the UECNA.

The Evangelical and Reformed Synod's official doctrinal standards will be the 39 Articles of Religion, the Augsburg variata, Luther’s large and small Catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Evangelical Catechism and the Marburg colloquy. They will use the Book of Common Prayer and I also suspect, the English language translation of the historic Prussian liturgy as the liturgical standard of their congregations.

These Evangelical and Reformed Congregations stand theologically and liturgically very much in the tradition of John Williamson Nevin. [Very unlike the Eureka Classis that had her roots in the theology of Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge] These congregations remained in the Reformed Church of the United States through its various mergers. In 1934 the R.C.U.S merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical and Reformed (E&R) Church. [You may recall that the Eureka Classis separated from the denomination at that time.] In 1957 the E&R Church merged with the Congregational Christian Church, resulting in the formation of the United Church of Christ (UCC). In 2013 these Reformed Congregations broke their ties with the United Church of Christ and ultimately some became part of the United Episcopal Church of North America, a jurisdiction that requires her clergymen to subscribe to the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion.

Some of these Reformed congregations in the Shenandoah valley and on into North Carolina were originally founded by German settlers that came to America prior to the Revolutionary War.

In addition to the Reverend Erastus Long, the Rector of Paul's Chapel in Lexington North Carolina another prominent leader of this group of reformed congregations is the Reverend Dr. John Taylor Brantley, the pastor of Boger Reformed Church in Concord North Carolina.

 

[Deleted member 6112]

calling itself the Evangelical and Reformed Churches.

They could have just called themselves the German Reformed Anglican Church of America

 

[yeutter]

They could have just called themselves the German Reformed Anglican Church of America

They want to be a Reformed Church with Episcopal Church polity. [I would also note that the Hungarian Reformed Church has Episcopal polity.] They want a Church that is friendly to Mercersburg Theology of John Williamson Nevin, and the Anglican evangelicalism of J. C. Ryle without using the name Anglican.

Anglicanism is sometimes understood as a Via Media. If Via Media is understood as a Via Media between Rome and Protestantism these Evangelical Reformed types would disagree. The brethren in the Evangelical and Reformed Synod envision Anglicanism as the via media that runs between Wittenberg and Zurich but finally ends in Geneva. The English Reformation, by its lights, was first inspired by Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone and grace alone. Then it turned to Martin Bucer, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and especially Calvin and his Institutes as its best expression of Christian faith purged of papist ceremonial. Cranmer and Jewell turned attention away from Roman Catholic spectacle and back toward the preached Word.

The Protestant center of Anglicanism is demonstrated by the Thirty-Nine Articles’ exaltation of biblical authority and rejection of Catholic sacramentalism. The Black Rubric of the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, and the mature Cranmer’s approach to Ceremonies, prove that Anglicanism [before it was infiltrated by Liberalism, and Tractarian Anglo-Romanism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries], was a Religion of the Word.

 

[yeutter]

The Rt. Rev Erastus Aaron Long was consecrated today, at Paul's Chapel in Lexington North Carolina, as the Bishop of the Evangelical and Reformed Synod, by the Rt Rev Peter Robinson of the United Episcopal Church of North America and the Rt. Rev. Robert S. Biermann of the Reformed Anglican Church, using the liturgical forms provided for the consecration of Bishops found in the Book of Common Prayer.

This new Reformed Synod's official doctrinal standards are the 39 Articles of Religion, the Augsburg variata, Luther’s large and small Catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Evangelical Catechism and the Marburg colloquy.

This new Reformed jurisdiction stands in the tradition of John Williamson Nevin and the Mercersburg Theology of the pre 1934 Reformed Church of the United States.

 

[jwright82]

Wow. Fascinating thread. I'm going look into this Synod later thanks for sharing.

 

[Edward]

They could have just called themselves the German Reformed Anglican Church of America

the Anglican evangelicalism of J. C. Ryle without using the name Anglican.

I'd suggest German Reformed Evangelical Augsburg Theology Church for the name. Who wouldn't want to affiliate with a GREAT Chuch?

 

[yeutter]

Bishop Erastus Aaron Long offered this explanation of his consecration on Saturday 14 September 2024
The Evangelical and Reformed church came into existence in 1934 as the result of a merger between the (German) Reformed Church and the Evangelical Synod (Prussian Union) in North America. The presence of the German Reformed Church in America dates back to 1725. The churchmanship of the German Reformed was quite low in the earliest days on this continent, but by the mid 1800’s they experienced a considerable liturgical revival under the Mercersburg movement, which helped create unity with most of the Hungarian Reformed and the remaining Huguenot Churches. The Prussian Union/Evangelical Churches, who were formed as a merger of Lutheran and Reformed jurisdictions in Prussia, worked with their Anglican brethren to establish the Jerusalem Bishopric, which operated as a united protestant Episcopal See in Jerusalem for nearly half a century from 1841 until 1886. The Jerusalem Bishopric ultimately fell apart in the mid-1880s as a result of the Anglican inflexibility regarding the rite used for the consecration of the protestant Bishop of Jerusalem.

The 1934 merger between the Reformed and Prussian Union churches established the Evangelical and Reformed Church which existed until 1957, at which time they entered an ill-fated merger with the Congregational Christian Church to form the United Church of Christ. Through the years, the higher influences in the UCC became completely apostate, causing many of the old E&R churches to withdraw from the UCC in the late 20th and early 21st century (1995-2015).

These E&R congregations spent years looking for a theological home. Due to my personal familiarity with the original Mercersburg documents from working with them in seminary (including hands on work with Nevin’s personal copies of the 1662 and the 1789 BCPs) I spent the better part of 15 years researching Anglicanism until I eventually joined the UECNA and worked with Bishop Peter Robinson to bring in former E&R churches under the UECNAs canons 16 and 35. I came into the UECNA in 2018 as a canon 16/35 priest and Paul’s Chapel Reformed Church, where I pastor, followed suit in 2023.

Canons 16 and 35 of the UECNA are sometimes called the Muhlenberg exception (so called after the Rev, H.M. Muhlenberg) are derived from policies which were present in the canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church going back to the late 1700’s (which interestingly enough helped to give birth to a degree to the liturgy of St Tikhon). These canons allow for congregations and ministers of other magisterial protestant traditions to come into the UECNA while maintaining our own liturgical heritage within our parishes because we did not disagree with anything of theological significance, so long as the churches agreed to submission to episcopal authority. After some success initially, we realized that the pure pond mentality of some in the UECNA and other Continuum Anglicans, that our presence and the maintenance of our liturgical heritage was being viewed as a threat.

After being elected as a suffragan in the UECNA’s eastern district (unanimously by the clergy and laity present, it should be noted) in order to care for the E&R churches specifically, my consecration was blocked (arguably extracanonically) by some members of the UECNA’s House of Bishops. When we realized that the House of Bishops was going to cause ongoing problems, we called together the clergy serving E&R churches and formally set up a bishop in classis structure based on the Hungarian Reformed Church/Calvin Synod model. On 14 September 2024 the clergy serving those E&R congregations formally resigned from the eastern district and from the UECNA. With the support of two forward looking bishops in the Anglican Continuum, we were able to obtain our own German Reformed Bishop (myself) with Anglican orders, hence the full 1928 consecration service. We did this in hopes that one day an inter-communion agreement might be reached and our orders would be accepted by any like minded Anglicans who might be willing to work towards a common mission for Christ.

Our confessional statements are the following: The Augsburg Confession, Luther’s Large and Small Catechisms, The Heidelberg Catechism, The Evangelical Catechism, the 39 Articles, and the Marburg Articles. Our permitted liturgical forms are the 1947 Evangelical and Reformed Book of Worship, the 1941 Lutheran Liturgical forms, and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer modified for American use. We are currently in conversation with some conservative protestant Anglican and Lutheran bodies, as well as some conservative Methodist congregations who have left the UMC and want liturgical worship and structure. We are also in conversations with the Hungarian and Polish Reformed churches.

 

[py3ak]

The churchmanship of the German Reformed was quite low in the earliest days on this continent, but by the mid 1800’s they experienced a considerable liturgical revival under the Mercersburg movement, which helped create unity with most of the Hungarian Reformed and the remaining Huguenot Churches.

That's an interesting take. From inside the continuing RCUS, our perspective is that Mercersburg was largely defeated well before 1934. The rising ecumenical movement swept a large part of the German Reformed into a disastrous union with the Evangelical Synod (itself the result of unfortunate, state-enforced union in Prussia). Some felt that an immense mistake had been committed immediately upon the merger beginning, and there were churches that pulled out as the administrative machinery revealed itself. The first disastrous union prepared the way for the second disaster, of joining with the congregationalists.

One of the mechanisms making these various unions rather disastrous was the dilution of doctrine by the multiplication of confessional documents. An illustrative case in point might be the PCUSA's Book of Confessions.

 

[yeutter]

One of the mechanisms making these various unions rather disastrous was the dilution of doctrine by the multiplication of confessional documents. An illustrative case in point might be the PCUSA's Book of Confessions.

Sadly, I note that Bishop Long's Evangelical and Reformed Synod has not adopted THE SECOND HELVETIC CONFESSION, like the PCUSA did in its Book of Confessions.
Bishop Long and his Evangelical and Reformed Synod would disagree with your assessment of Mercerburg and think that John Williamson Nevin and Mercersburg Theology still have something of value to offer. I would note that historically the Reformed Churches in North Carolina disagreed with Nevin and Schaff and many elements of Mercerburg Theology. The entire North Carolina Classis, left the RCUS in 1853 in reaction to some things published in the Mercersburg Review.

 

[Theoretical]

The irony is the fact that this group will get a veritable tanker truck's worth of ink relative to their size from Confessional Lutherans who interact with them precisely because of the problems of Unionism that led to the Missouri Synod Lutherans coming over from Germany.

 

[py3ak]

Sadly, I note that Bishop Long's Evangelical and Reformed Synod has not adopted THE SECOND HELVETIC CONFESSION, like the PCUSA did in its Book of Confessions.
Bishop Long and his Evangelical and Reformed Synod would disagree with your assessment of Mercerburg and think that John Williamson Nevin and Mercersburg Theology still have something of value to offer. I would note that historically the Reformed Churches in North Carolina disagreed with Nevin and Schaff and many elements of Mercerburg Theology. The entire North Carolina Classis, left the RCUS in 1853 in reaction to some things published in the Mercersburg Review.

The trajectory of the PCUSA up to and after adopting a multitude of confessions has not been in the direction of doctrinal clarity, however. The reason is not far to seek. If you subscribe to a multitude of confessional documents, diversity between them creates loopholes or difficulty. Unless the strictest statement is always taken as superseding others, in an immense plurality of confessions you get some degree of confusion and lose some ability to enforce the standards. No doubt the ideal is that what is central in each of them would bind everyone together, but I am skeptical that this is how it functions in practice.

I'm sure he would! By saying Mercersburg was defeated I wasn't commenting on the value of their contribution, but saying that within the RCUS the controversy originating thence was largely settled before 1934, and was not settled in their favor (Schaff and Nevin both moved on from the RCUS). Lest anyone misunderstand, though, appreciation for tireless labors of genuine, if sometimes flawed, scholarship does not lead me to favor any distinctive points of the Mercersburg approach.

 

[Theoretical]

I think a better and more stable approach would have been to append the Heidelberg Catechism to the 1662+39 Articles+Ordinal, especially since that has significant historical foundation among Reformed Anglicans prior to the English Civil War. That'd be stabilizing enough ballast to some degree.

That was one of the bigger missing pieces for the CoE historically since the 1662's catechism is rather short.

Luther's Catechisms AND Heidelberg means your view of the sacraments really doesn't matter as long as you're not a Zwinglian.

Part of the issue with Unionist churches is that because the major doctrinal issues are discounted, it means you have to elevate and police the forms of worship far more strictly to avoid Romish influence. That's also where something like the Act of Uniformity becomes something of a necessity, except for the nasty way it was intentionally constructed.

For example, there's a massive amount of ink spilled on which part of the communion table the minister should stand at for Communion given the historical concerns with introducing or re-introducing beliefs about Communion by action that are Romish. Disagree with them all you want but no matter what a sincere Lutheran minister in a confessional denomination is doing that looks incredibly Roman, doctrinally you know it's not Roman. The same should be true of Reformed churches.

 

[yeutter]

I think a better and more stable approach would have been to append the Heidelberg Catechism to the 1662+39 Articles+Ordinal, especially since that has significant historical foundation among Reformed Anglicans prior to the English Civil War.

What you outlined is essentially the approach that both the United Episcopal Church of North America and the Reformed Anglican Church have taken.

• Nowell's Middle Catechism
• Heidelberg Catechism
• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer including it's Ordinal and Catechism
• 39 Articles of Religion
  
  Our German Reformed brethren think that they are better served by adopting the
  
  
• The 1662 Book of Common Prayer including it's Catechism
• Heidelberg Catechism
• Augsburg 1540 variata The Marburg colloquy, the Evangelical Catechism, Luther's Larger and Shorter Catechisms
• 39 Articles of Religion.
  
  Part of the reason for these choices is historical, and relates not just to the German Reformed in North America, but also to the agreement between the Church of Prussia and the Church of England over Episcopal oversight of the Protestant Church in Jerusalem.

 

[Deleted member 6112]

Any union formed on theological compromise (if so-called Reformed folks, Lutherans, and Methodists can all be comfortable there, you can't tell me they aren't compromised) and on human traditions (high liturgical forms and episcopal polity) is an unholy union.

What, by the way, is the point of adopting the Augsburg with variata if they also adopt Luther's Large Catechism? The Catechism contains everything the variata is supposed to remove.

 

[Theoretical]

What, by the way, is the point of adopting the Augsburg with variata if they also adopt Luther's Large Catechism? The Catechism contains everything the variata is supposed to remove.

Yeah, that confused me greatly and strikes me as incredibly undiscerning, and frankly only accommodating to those of Lutheran persuasion who aren't very committed to those positions. Serious Missouri synod and those to its right would have even more distrust there. Only super-high Reformed would find it appealing on confessional grounds. The less doctrinally strict would be whatever. The other big problem with the variata is you've got two vastly different approaches to the two natures of Christ (opposite ends of Chalcedon) you're trying to square in a way that's much harder than just two separate communions in debate with one another.

You know where that level of compromise makes sense as a temporary holding ground? A Space Station or a Lunar or Martian Colony, or some nation or remote region with literally no churches. Perhaps in less extreme circumstances, some unusual degree of compromise might be needed for something like an English-speaking church in a foreign land, but even then I'd personally suspect that even a different confessionalist church like a Lutheran or Particular Baptist would be a sounder place than a unionist "internationalist" church.

Put a gun to my head with one worship book besides a Bible to send to a space church, I'd probably send a 1662 Book of Common Prayer into space so long as I could put the Act of Uniformity in space junk going the other way. A serious Reformed Chirstian and minister could work with it as many did pre-Restoration. If the Church Order of Dort included a psalter and forms for worship (and I mean more than just basic services but marriages, funerals, baptismal, and the like, I'd send that instead. A psalter or psalter+directory for worship would be even better, but if it was truly the remotest of the remote, you can do a lot worse than the 1662's forms as a starting place but not being slavishly bound to them.

 

[yeutter]

What, by the way, is the point of adopting the Augsburg with variata if they also adopt Luther's Large Catechism? The Catechism contains everything the variata is supposed to remove.

I think this needs to be understood in it's historical context. If I remember correctly, at the time my Great Grandfather came to the United States, the Church he joined in Manchester Michigan, like the Württembergische Landeskirche adhered to the Heidelberg Catechism, the Augsburg 1540 variata, the Marburg colloquy, and Luther's Larger and Shorter Catechisms were all part of their confessional standards.
The leadership of the Evangelical and Reformed Synod are seeking to return to doctrinal and liturgical heritage that the German Reformed congregations in the Shenandoah valley and North Carolina had historically; the heritage they inherited from the Preußische Staatskirche.
When they were in the United Episcopal Church these brethren, who now lead the Evangelical and Reformed Synod, embraced an Anglicanism as the via media that runs between Wittenberg and Zurich but finally ends in Geneva. I think that they and their congregations still see themselves as adhering to a via media between the moderate Lutheranism of Martin Luther and the Reformed faith and practice of the State Kirche of Prussia.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

My parents live near Lexington, NC and you pass two E&R congregations getting to their house. I've been watching this with some interest just out of geographical curiosity. Thanks for the information here.