It is never easy to predict what topics will prompt vigorous debate during the Christian Reformed Church’s annual synod (leadership meeting).
There are plenty of choices this year:

• Proposed revisions to the translations of the Reformed confessions
• Allowing baptized children to take communion without making profession of faith
• The revised Form of Subscription
• Writings of Calvin College professors
• Homosexuality
• Resignations of denominational senior staff
• The plan to achieve ethnic diversity in the denomination’s senior management
• Changes to our ministers’ pension plans.

Synod 2011 will convene in Grand Rapids, Mich., from June 10-16. Each of the CRC’s 47 classes (regional groups of churches) will send two ministers and two elders as representatives.

As synod agendas go, you wouldn’t want to drop this one on your toes. The Agenda for Synod 2011 is 695 pages, almost as thick as last year’s. That’s because both agendas contain all three of the CRC’s Reformed standards (the Belgic Confession, Canons of Dort, and the Heidelberg Catechism) in their proposed revised translations.

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Then there is our revised Form of Subscription, now called our Covenant for Officebearers, which is the document officebearers sign to signal their agreement with doctrines officially held by the CRC, keeping us on the same confessional page, so to speak.

And there’s the question of whether writings by two professors at Calvin College, which is owned by the CRC, have stayed within the bounds of those Reformed confessions.

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This is the year synod will decide if baptized members, including children, can take communion before making a formal public profession of faith. First proposed at Synod 2006, it will be up to Synod 2011 whether to adopt the changes in our Church Order that would allow it.

The work of the denomination’s Board of Trustees will likely receive plenty of attention, as well, in light of the recent resignations of Executive Director Rev. Jerry Dykstra, Director of Denominational Ministries Sandy Johnson, and Safe Church Ministry Director Beth Swagman.

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In other matters, Synod 2011 has been asked to appoint a synodical study committee to review the biblical teachings regarding homosexual orientation and practice, always a hot-button issue.

It has also been asked to consider a proposal for convening a young adult summit to be held in conjunction with Synod 2012, at which young adult delegates will function as an advisory group to synod, considering the same agenda items as Synod 2012.

Gayla R. Postma is news editor of The Banner. Read More Here.

Related Links

• Belgic Confession
• Canons of Dort
• Heidelberg Catechism
• Proposed Revised Translations
• Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testimony
• Belhar Confession
• Form Of Subscription
• Proposed Covenant for Officebearers
• Baptism agreement
• [Editor’s note: Original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]