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,…
You’ve heard, no doubt, of the “No True Scotsman” fallacy. The idea is that when a counterexample is posed to some general truth (i.e., “Scotsmen are brave”), that counterexample is fallaciously refuted by saying that anyone who doesn’t fit that truth cannot be a “true” instance of the type. Point me to a cowardly Scot…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Synod 2025 is over. I will leave it to others to write about the gracious hospitality of Redeemer University and the warm opening ceremonies by Chatham First Christian Reformed Church (CRC), its congenial pastor Nate Van Denend and their local high school praise team. The composition of Synod – the all-white male executive and near…
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…
We’re in our corner. There’s a thermos of Douwe Egberts coffee on the table. Today Pete is the server. Instead of Gemberkoek, we have apple pie, which Broekie pulled out of a bag and set beside the thermos. So Broekie brought the pie, though we know Corrie baked it. He hands a plate to each of us and slices the pie into six pieces.
This Friday morning, we’re back in our corner of the dining hall at Grace Manor. We usually meet at 10 and wrap things up around noon. I arrived at 10, but there was no one in sight. I went to the kitchen to check with Mary – maybe she knew something.
In mid-March I had the opportunity to travel to Indonesia with a group of faculty from Calvin University. Indonesia is an archipelago made up of over 17,000 distinct islands and with a population of 250 million people, it makes up the fourth most populous nation in the world. Its people represent a variety of faith…
You may not know me or remember this, but, to my knowledge, I am the only former Banner editor who got in front of an entire Christian Reformed Church (CRC) Synod to publicly apologize. I said I was sorry for allowing two articles in quick succession that many readers judged to have gone over the…
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