Synod, interrupted
Part two of "Four Fresh Approaches to Synod."
Some say it takes a couple of synods before you fully understand how things are done and how the agenda is worked through. As the Thursday 3pm synodical ruled ending time loomed, it became clear the agenda would not be completed. The chair ending debate simply was not an option as many still needed to be heard. Should the program committee and officers have seen that and started advisory committee 7 and 8 discussions sooner? Should some of the traditions and pageantries have been put aside for this synod to allow more debate time for a heavy agenda?
Important questions that need to be considered for future synods, but by not completing its work, Synod 2023 left too many questions unanswered and the road ahead uncertain for many. The cost of that may be greater than many of us fear. I pray not.
FOUR FRESH APPROACHES TO SYNOD
“Instead of writing a regular news piece about the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) recent Synod, I decided to engage with it creatively through four questions: What was Synod 2023’s watershed moment? Why did Synod run out of time? Could Overtures be submitted any other way – in video format, perhaps? And what would Abraham
Kuyper say about it all, if we had a robot with his personality who could imagine being in Grand Rapids? (We do!)”
– Angela Reitsma Bick, Editor
Read the other parts to this series:
– Answering Rita’s question
– Video overtures?!
– Even robots grow weary
