Synod anxiety barometer

I wrote most of this before Synod 2024 began. But I was certain we’d still be talking about it, for good or for ill. In 2022 and 2023, Synod discussed the Human Sexuality Report (HSR) and decided by a majority vote that the seventh commandment forbidding adultery, as explained in the Heidelberg Catechism, includes same-sex relationships. Synod 2024 has now placed limits on how office bearers (elders, deacons and pastors) are allowed to use gravamina to express their theological difficulties. As of June 20, churches and individuals who identify as “in protest” of Synod’s decisions on human sexuality are under discipline and office bearers of LGBTQ+ affirming churches have been temporarily suspended. Affected churches have begun asking about the disaffiliation process. 

Now that Synod 2024 has spoken, some people are ready to move on, while many others are stunned and puzzled as to how we arrived at this point of church fracture. So back in May, I posted an open request on social media asking for responses to recent synods as well as thoughts and predictions regarding Synod 2024. More than 40 current and former CRC members responded, including retired pastors, former synodical delegates and interested laypersons. Only two identified as conservative and hold a traditional CRC position on sexuality. Many others felt undecided or mixed, expressing appreciation for aspects of the Human Sexuality Report while still having reservations about what Synod has done with the report’s findings. Most responded via private emails and on Facebook Messenger; only 12 gave permission to publish their comments. All but two requested anonymity, citing the current tense atmosphere within the CRC; for the sake of consistency, no respondent will be named. 

Most correspondents assumed that the decisions of last year and 2022 would be reaffirmed and strengthened. But not all expressed such resignation to predetermined decisions. A long-time former member of a Canadian provincial legislature made a practical suggestion: “A Christ-like response to same-sex attracted church members who love the Lord and wish to be part of the body of believers is best developed on a case-by-case basis at the local congregational level. Discussions at the synodical level are [too] abstract. The synodical pronouncements of 2023 fail to do justice to the unique experiences and circumstances of these members.”

Concern, acceptance or resignation 

Several respondents said they were concerned about the ways recent Synods have interpreted one of the denomination’s confessions that is more than 450 years old. “Synod 2022’s decision is based on one word in one answer (#109) in the Heidelberg Catechism,” explained a retired pastor with experience of seven synods as a delegate and three to report on a study committee. “That is historically anachronistic and imposes issues on the catechism its authors never considered. This constitutes a logical fallacy and misuse of the confession.”

 “I was at Synod when the Human Sexuality Report [HSR] was set in motion; I’ve been lamenting ever since,” commented one former delegate with two gay family members. 

Referring to the Heidelberg Catechism, a conservative church historian asserted, “The HSR did indeed thoroughly cover its mandate from Synod 2016, but it also far exceeded its mandate when it came to [. . .] confessional status.” This historian pointed out that the HSR committee mandate, as described in the Agenda for Synod 2022, was to provide “reflection and evaluation of whether or not, with respect to same-sex behavior and other issues identified in the study, it will be advisable for future [respondent’s italics] synods to consider . . . declaring a status confessionis.”

 Some days later, that same person continued, “It is a sad irony that the Heidelberg Catechism, which was originally composed to unify various Protestant factions in the German Palatinate, is now being used in the CRC as a weapon to break up the denomination.”

One retired celibate gay pastor offered a poignant comment: “The HSR is ambitious and overreaching. In overreaching, the report strayed into heresy by denying the grace of God to a segment of God’s people.” He’s referring to passages of the HSR that treat premarital sex, extramarital sex, adultery, polyamory, pornography and homosexual sex as salvation issues. For example, the report concludes, “The Scriptures call the church to warn people to flee sexual immorality for the sake of their souls and to encourage them with God’s presence and power to equip them for holy living. A church that fails to call people to repentance and offer them the hope of God’s loving deliverance is acting like a false church.”

Several respondents questioned the validity of sexuality being declared a salvation issue. “Such a decision effectively claims that one’s salvation is determined by a personal decision. What does that have to do with God’s decree of election or the mysterious saving grace of Christ’s work?” Related to that, a high school Bible teacher noted, “Arminius was declared a heretic for teaching that personal decisions determined salvation.”

Women’s leadership and divorce

One person who agrees with the CRC’s official stance on human sexuality noted that the hermeneutic LGBTQ+ affirming Christians use to support their views is similar to the one used to open up church offices to women in the 1990s. But congregations apply this hermeneutic inconsistently. “Curiously, several classes, many congregations and pastors wholly supporting Synods ’22 and ’23, have chosen women office bearers,” commented the respondent. “I wonder how those churches will get along with congregations and classes prohibiting women elders, deacons and pastors.” Will the denomination continue to have room for both interpretations of scripture when it comes to women’s leadership?

Two respondents moved from the HSR’s recommendations on sexuality and pointed to the HSR’s critical comments about divorced persons. They referred to Synod 1980’s guidelines permitting divorce and remarriage. They then noted that the 1980 decision used “the same hermeneutic permitting women to serve as church officers was also largely used to allow for divorced people to remarry.” They read the HSR’s section on divorce as hinting that the 1980 decision was mistaken. 

As congregations continue to process the decisions of the past few years, many members of the CRC look ahead with fear and anxiety. Synod 2024 has chosen to keep our flawed but beloved CRC supposedly pure in doctrine and fewer in numbers. These moves are now causing grief and fear of punitive discipline for members who hold a more progressive sexual ethic. 

“I seriously don’t know if I’ll be a pastor in the CRC in six months,” one respondent said, “or if I’ll be allowed to be by those who wish to enforce discipline. That causes anxiety that has a way of infecting everything else that is good.” No matter how Synod 2024’s decisions affect your local church, the turmoil and uncertainty in many parts of the CRC will roil and cause pain for some years to come.