Several years ago, my father gave me a copy of our family tree going back seven generations. It was quite grounding to see where I came from and how I fit in. Interestingly, our family genealogist (a distant relative in the Netherlands) chose to include two important pieces of information alongside many of the names…
Does Canada really need another denomination, let alone a Reformed one? Roughly 150 participants from 55 churches at the All Canada Summit, in Kitchener, Ontario, weren’t sure. But by the end of the four-day gathering (November 5-8), the Summit concluded with a hopeful “yes.” As one joyful participant said, “I feel like I have been…
“You cannot be neutral about this!” That was what a senior denominational leader in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) told me last Spring, during a dispute over an editorial. I was the editor in chief of the CRC’s magazine, The Banner, until July 2025 when I resigned in protest. In that disputed editorial, I wrote…
This October, representatives from more than 300 denominations, all members of the World Council of Churches (WCC), will gather in Egypt to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. The creed this council produced in 325 AD begins, “We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things…
The Board doesn’t know this yet – except for Jaime, who winced when I mentioned it to her over lunch in Fort Langley in June – but our editorial team has an idea that might solve polarization. It’s called Enemy Pen Pals. Through this experiment, I’ll start connecting Christian Courier (CC) subscribers who might, at…
There’s been a lot of drama in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) these past few years. I could use a break; maybe you too? The CRC has suffered self-inflicted wounds. We’re losing churches and pastors. We’re short on trust, and all we have left is procedure. We haven’t found ways to give and receive forgiveness,…
Several months ago, Christian Courier Editor Angela Reitsma Bick interviewed Rev. Al Postma, Executive Director-Canada of the CRCNA, about denominational tensions and his response to CC’s Canada-wide survey on the future of the CRC here. The following excerpts come from that conversation. CC: Are you tracking disaffiliation discussions? Postma: Yes, to the best of our…
At the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) Synod last month, the denomination decisively rejected a proposal aimed at splitting the bi-national denomination along the Canada-U.S. border. The primary group supporting this proposal is Toward Christian Reformed Church Canada (TCRCC). Since 2023, the group has been advocating for Canadian churches to have a greater degree of separation…
The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) held its annual general assembly in Canada last month, the first time Synod has met north of the 49th parallel since 2012. In his opening address to the delegates and guests gathered at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario, the CRCNA’s General Secretary Zachary King said that 34…
Location, location, location are the principles of real estate value. Context, context, context are the fundamentals of interpretation. When context is ignored, texts are manipulated to fit an agenda. This is what happened with the Christian Reformed Church’s Synodical Human Sexuality Report (HSR). It has caused chaos in the denomination. Literary Context The first context…
My home town of Kampen is a very pretty, small town near the mouth of the river IJssel in the Netherlands. In Reformed circles it became famous because of the seminary founded there by the “separated congregations,” one of the two branches of the Afscheiding of 1854. During the time I lived in Kampen, there…
It didn’t have to happen. Nobody in Jubilee Fellowship Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in St. Catharines, Ontario, originally wanted it to happen. But on June 23, 2025, 97 percent of our members voted to leave the CRC. The decision took a long, agonizing time. Yet staying became impossible after Synod 2024 summarily put all protesting…
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