OCRC Joins URCNA

[dannyhyde]

Hello PuritanBoard,

Below is an announcement from the United Reformed Churches in North America's Committee for Ecumenical Relations and Church Unity.

August 27, 2008

Dear Brothers,

Greetings in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Shepherd and King!

By this letter we announce with thanksgiving that at its recent Synod the Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches accepted the invitation extended to them to join the United Reformed Churches in North America.

On Friday, August 22, 2008, the Federation of Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches met in Synod in Nobleton, Ontario, to discuss an overture to accept the invitation extended to the federation to enter into federative union with the URCNA on the basis of three Forms of Unity and the Church Order. The invitation to the OCRC was made by Synod Schererville (2007) and subsequently ratified by a majority of the consistories of the URCNA, as required by the Church Order.

Prior to the Synod, four of the five churches in the OCRC held congregational meetings in which members expressed themselves strongly in favor of a federational decision to accept the invitation. Due to other congregational concerns, the Cambridge OCRC consistory made a decision to postpone indefinitely dealing with the matter of joining with the URCNA. For this reason they also abstained from voting on the overture which was presented at Synod and will remain independent for the present. All the votes which were cast were in favor of accepting the invitation and joining with the URCNA.

As per the invitation, the churches by virtue of last week’s synodical vote are received immediately into the URCNA, without conducting a colloquium doctum for their ministers. The congregations involved are in Bowmanville, ON; Burlington, WA; Kelowna, BC; and Nobleton, ON.

May the Lord Jesus be honoured by these decisions of our respective synods and grant us grace to receive one another in charity, that together we may contend for the Gospel in one mind and spirit. We pray that this development may strengthen all the congregations as we serve one another and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

In Christ’s Service,

On behalf of the Committee For Ecumenical Relations and Church Unity

Rev. Harry Zekveld, secretary

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

Any word on the Canadian and American Reformed Churches talks with the URCNA?

 

[Scott1]

This is great news.

I'm sure it is a real encouragement to the denomination.

From their web site, it looks like they have been biblically faithful and reformed and have been willing to suffer for it. Operating in Canada with the constraints of socialism, and having suffered the pain of separating from the liberalism of another denomination, this group even had the integrity to firmly reject the "Federal Vision" theology in recent action.

It sounds like they have a lot to offer.

Orthodox Christian Reformed Church

 

[dannyhyde]

We've been in "Phase 2" (i.e., sister-church) with the CanRC since 2001. Currently there are various committees dealing with various issues related to our distinctive federations as well as issues that would need to be ironed out to merge. The committees are: songbook, liturgical forms, theological education, and church order.

You'll notice that conspicuously absent from that list of committees is a theological discussion committee. Our two federations' ecumenical committees did some work leading up to 2001, but since then, there has been no substantive discussion of theological issues. For example, our Classis sent a list of 20+ questions to the CanRC ecumenical committee via our ecumenical committee in 2005 and have not even received a response yet. The questions revolved around issues of covenant theology, justification, and baptism.

I pray that one day all our fragmented continental churches will unite and that the presbyterians would unite, then NAPARC would be two churches that could relate much easier. But that's a pipe dream, I know.

Any word on the Canadian and American Reformed Churches talks with the URCNA?

 

[Seb]

A little off topic, but I wish we (the CRCNA) would repent to where we could come back.

 

[Dearly Bought]

If I recall correctly, didn't the creation issue come up in earlier conversations? Any word regarding how that was resolved?

 

[dannyhyde]

We had invited the OCRC to join with us in 1999, but they then came out with a statement of 6-24hr. creation and anti-Framework. In 2001 the URCNA then adopted the following:

Decisions concerning Biblical Interpretation and Genesis:
1. Synod affirms that Scripture teaches, as summarized by the Creeds and the Three Forms of Unity, the following:
• The authority and perspicuity of Scripture (B.C. V; H.C. VII).
• Necessity and sufficiency of Scripture (B.C. VII and H.C. VII).
• God the Father almighty created the heavens and the earth and all
things visible and invisible (Apostles' and Nicene Creed)
• The Father created the heavens and the earth out of nothing (H.C. LD IX).
• God gave every creature its shape and being (B.C. XII).
• The creation and fall of man. “God made man of the dust of the earth;
man gave ear to the devil” (B.C. XIV).
• The historicity of Adam (L.D. VII.20; C.O.D. III/IV.1).
• Man was created good, in a garden, and tempted by the devil, committed
reckless disobedience (H.C. III and IV).
• God’s words to the serpent in Paradise are noted as the first
revelation of the Gospel (H.C. L.D. VI).
• Adam plunged himself and his offspring by his first transgression into perdition (B.C. XVI).
• Adam’s fall into sin and our connection to it (C.O.D. 1.1)
• God came seeking man when he, trembling, fled from him (B.C. XVII).
• God created all things good in six days defined as evenings and mornings (Genesis 1 & 2 and Exodus 20:11). This means that we reject any evolutionary teaching, including theistic evolution, concerning the origin of the earth and all creatures (L.D. IX).

2. Synod affirms our commitment as churches to discipline those who teach anything that stands in conflict with the Bible as summarized in the Creeds and the Three Forms of Unity.

3. Synod affirms our commitment as churches to Church Order procedure in dealing with matters of discipline of those whose teaching stands in conflict with the Bible as summarized in the Creeds and the Three Forms of Unity.

Grounds:
1. The above is consistent with the basis of our federative unity, which we declare is in the Bible as summarized in the Three Forms of Unity. We have said together in the introduction to our Church Order:
We as a federation of churches declare complete subjection and obedience to the Word of God delivered to us in the inspired, infallible and inerrant book of Holy Scripture. We believe and are fully persuaded that the Reformed Creeds do fully agree with this Word of God and therefore do subscribe to the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dort…The churches of the federation, although distinct, voluntarily display their unity by means of a common confession and church order.

2. The Three Forms of Unity adequately contain the parameters within which the interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2 can responsibly take place.

3. The above will provide the context in which we are able to protect the churches from heresy and spur one another on to faithful and vigilant discipline in order to protect our confessional unity. There is no specific case before this Synod in which someone has been charged with violating the Three Forms of Unity regarding matters put forward by any of the overtures.

4. This provides a brotherly way to address the concerns raised by the OCRC and to give pastoral response for the members of our own federation.

If I recall correctly, didn't the creation issue come up in earlier conversations? Any word regarding how that was resolved?

 

[jaybird0827]

Danny,

This is good news. Rejoicing with you.