Synod 2025 Overview

Dear folks interested in an autonomous Canadian CRC,

Including this year, there will have been 152 synods in total for the CRC in North America. The first Canadian classis was established in 1950 (Classis Ontario), so just shy of half of those synods included a Canadian voice. From around 1955 to the present, the number of Canadian CRC congregations was 25% of the total churches in the CRCNA (prior to that year, the proportion was anywhere from 3-9%). And as of the beginning of this year, Canadian CRCs had 27.5% of the total membership.

The face-to-face part of Synod 2025 will begin on Friday, June 13, when the delegates convene on the grounds of Redeemer University in Ancaster, ON. In a virtual meeting on May 28, the four officers were chosen (see here), so the discussions in the Advisory Groups can begin right away on the Friday. Those discussions continue through Saturday; the groups then report in the plenary session, beginning on Monday. The actual agenda for each day is set by the executive normally the night before, so when each overture is to be discussed and voted on is generally unknown until the day before or the day of. The plenary sessions will occur from Monday, June 16, with a hard stop on Thursday June 19 at 3:00 pm. (That said, we will make every effort to keep you in the loop either through the newsletter, or more likely, through our Facebook page.)

I would suggest that there are (at least) three key bits of backdrop that overshadow this synod, at least for Canada:

1. The lived experience with the gravamen process and product, and its impact on recruitment and retention of office-bearers.
2. The increasing number of disaffiliating CRCs across the country,
3. The less than pleasant political and economic relationship currently existing between Canada and the USA.

There are a number of overtures dealing with gravamen, either in favour of tightening restrictions, or loosening restrictions, and with the Covenant for Office-bearers (CFO). And of course, Overture 28, which in many ways, is the key overture for the Canadian CRC. The goal of this overture is to have two CRCs in North America, as equal partners, each completely accountable to God and to their own constituencies. For Canada, that would mean full and unfettered decision-making in this country. Of course, the Canadian Ministry Board (CMB) exists to make decisions for and about the Canadian CRCs, and to maintain the system; it does so, however, within the parametres established by the bi-country synod. Neither the CMB nor the COD is accountable to the Canadian churches. A Canadian CRC would allow for greater sea-to-sea-to-sea collaboration, at all levels. We could learn well from the experiences of each and all the other 230+ CRCs in the country. Canada, and the CRC here, relishes diversity: it’s hard, but it’s good. Therefore, any unity that occurs needs to be a dynamic unity, rather than an inert unity.

It’s time.

Blessings, Peter Bulthuis, for TCRCC