Enroute to Synod

On June 14th, almost 200 pastors, elders and deacons from across Canada and the U.S. will gather in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) Synod.

Jim Poelman, a retired pastor from Morpeth, Ontario, says he and his fellow delegates will need the wisdom of Solomon to keep the denomination together since “The Human Sexuality Report (HSR) has translated itself into the formation of two divergent ways of being and doing church.”

Yet Poelman is expecting the unexpected. Isn’t the Bible full of heavenly surprises? God gave Abraham and Sarah a geriatric pregnancy, turned a crucifixion into the greatest victory and invited Peter to eat from a sheet of unclean foods from heaven. “I am sure God can and will do it again,” exclaims Poelman. “And this I find gives great freedom.”

This will be Paul Verhoef’s fourth Synod. Verhoef, who is a chaplain at the University of Calgary, remembers attending previous Synods with a sense of excitement. It was an opportunity to connect with colleagues and enjoy Christian fellowship. During the 2014 Synod in Pella, Iowa he even took a van full of delegates to his uncle’s farm to swim and ride the zipline. But heading into 2024, Verhoef says he’s feeling more anxious than excited. “I am so aware of all that is happening around the CRC and stepping into a Synod might signal major separations within the denomination I love. That’s very unsettling.”

Like Poelman, Verhoef is hoping to be surprised by the outcome. “I have no idea what I’ll be voting because I hope we come up with some unexpected recommendations to vote on,” says Verhoef. “At best, Synod gathers people with convicted hearts and open minds able to discern wise motions that chart a path between extremes presented in overtures, finding a surprising way forward.”

The gravamen issue

The key topic of the week-long denominational meeting will be gravamina. The agenda mentions “gravamen” or its plural form “gravamina” 563 times. That’s almost one instance for every page.

Before 2022, only Church order nerds were familiar with the term, but now it’s become central to the CRC’s future. There are two types of gravamina, but the one everyone is talking about is the confessional difficulty gravamen. According to CRC Church Order, office bearers (elders, deacons and pastors) can use this gravamen to communicate theological difficulties to their church council.

When Synod decided in 2022 that “unchastity,” as forbidden in the Heidelberg Catechism, includes homosexual sex, many office bearers who hold LGBTQ+ affirming views suddenly wondered if they could continue serving. In response, the denomination created a FAQ page explaining how a gravamen works. It is presented as a practical way to allow spiritually gifted individuals to continue serving their church even if they disagree with the church’s official stance on human sexuality. According to this FAQ page, “those who have filed gravamina which have been accepted by their councils would be considered officebearers in good standing and therefore eligible to serve as delegates to the broader assemblies [like Synod].”

Over the past two years, many churches and regional groups (classes) have argued that this is an inaccurate interpretation of the church order. Cedric Parsels, a pastor who has spent time studying gravamina, says it was meant to be a process by which an office bearer could bring serious doubts to their fellow council members and ask for help resolving them. Synod 2024 will discuss overtures and communications that ask for limits on gravamina so that they don’t act as perpetual loopholes enabling unorthodox beliefs.

John Tamming says that his congregation doesn’t seem very aware of the implications of recent (or future) Synod decisions, but if Synod 2024 changes the way gravamina work to the point where council members are forced to resign or cannot accept nominations to serve, that might get everyone’s attention. “I know of at least two very popular and respected consistory members who have registered gravamina against the decisions of last year’s Synod,” says Tamming, a first-time delegate for Classis Huron who lives in Owen Sound, Ontario.

High tensions

“I attend with a sense of foreboding,” says Tamming. He’s concerned that Synod’s tone might turn toxic, especially since only about 14 percent of delegates are women. “I find women more relational in their approach than ideological,” he explains. But his concerns go deeper than that. “Are people really open to what the Holy Spirit may be about in our deliberations? [. . . ] I recall a delegate telling Synod last year that he preferred a pure church to one that contained multitudes,” says Tamming, “If that attitude prevails, we are in trouble.”

Verhoef acknowledges that tensions are high this year, but he still feels hopeful for his home church, River Park CRC. “Our congregation knows what we have been called to – to shape a mosaic community. And we are going to pursue that calling, likely no matter what Synod decides. In that sense, there is little concern and not too much attention to Synod besides wondering whether we will be able to stay CRC or need to leave in order to pursue our local calling.”

“Many mixed-perspective congregations do not know if they will stay in the CRC until after Synod 2024 makes decisions around gravamen with potential heavy restrictions on who can lead,” explains Verhoef. “Some congregations and pastors are in a holding pattern because of this current churn around human sexuality.”

Local impact

It’s unclear what impact Synod 2024 will have on local congregations. Of the delegates I interviewed, only Sonya Grypma, an elder from Willoughby CRC in Langley, B.C., said that her congregation is “fairly engaged with all things Synod.”

Michelle Ellis, pastor of Telkwa Community Church in northern B.C., says that her focus is on caring for her community, not denominational politics. Her congregation is much the same. “Our church is a pretty big mix of people from different backgrounds so I would say generally, people are not taking the initiative to follow this of their own accord, though some might.”

In Ontario, David Salverda, pastor of Alliston CRC, suspects that his congregation is mostly quietly content with Synod’s decisions on human sexuality. “A number of people are aware of the issues,” says Salverda, “but the majority are busy with their families, work, gardens and volunteer commitments.”

Is consensus possible?

“I hope that Synod finds a way to simplify the complexity we are facing, in a way that is helpful and provides clear direction for our denomination,” continues Salverda. “For instance, we need to define what it means for us to live into the HSR with integrity. And we need to figure out what this means for office bearers and congregations that can’t abide by these decisions. . . it’s impossible to love and minister to actual LGBTQ+ people – a value we all share – if we don’t agree on what love and good ministry look like.”

Verhoef is also looking for some sort of consensus to come out of Synod 2024 – not that everyone will be of one mind on the topic of human sexuality, but that most delegates will agree on what to do about our differences. “I imagine any plan forward will have to be a solid plan that recognizes, names and even honours significant and irreconcilable differences in convictions, but also is not hasty in timeline or punitive in posture.”

When CC asked Tamming, Ellis and Poelman what they hoped Synod would accomplish, they were more interested in decisions that allowed for complexity and uncertainty rather than finality.

“If this year’s Synod is OK with ambivalence, I think the church will muddle through and be OK,” replied Tamming. “My main hope for Synod is that it not surrender to the tyranny of the urgent.”

“If it can risk the vulnerability of uncertainty on some things, if there can be a spirit of unity, and special care and attention to minority voices even in the midst of controversial topics, if there can be a spirit of lifting up the vulnerable, that will be quite an accomplishment,” says Ellis.

When I asked Grypma what one thing she hopes Synod 2024 will accomplish her answer was quite simple: “To bring glory to God. I don’t mean that glibly,” she immediately added. “Despite how difficult last year’s Synod was, I also saw much of the best of the CRC: beautiful communal worship, atentiveness to prayer, deep knowledge of and respect for scripture.Controversial issues like the ones Synod will be deliberating over are challenging, but they also expose the CRC’s deep commitment to grappling with, rather than avoiding such issues.”