NR #1996-064: For Immediate Release
GKN Synod President Addresses Christian Reformed Synod

Editor's Note: This is a complete text of the June 13 fraternal address to
Synod 1996 of the Christian Reformed Church in North America by Rev. Richard
S.E. Vissinga, president of the General Synod of the Gereformeerde Kerken in
Nederland. The text is taken directly from the typed copy without any form of
editing other than standardizing spelling in accord with American
conventions. Material in brackets is explanatory and does not appear in the
text. The written text does not reflect a few additions made by Vissinga in
delivery of his speech.

Fraternal Address to the Synod of the CRC


 Two months ago, the Synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands
(herewith I will say: GKN) met for several days in Lunteren. The agenda
included reports of the standing committees on Church and Israel, Ecumenism,
War and Peace, and Congregational Upbuilding.

 We were very pleased that three delegates of the Christian Reformed Church
attended most of the sessions and were able to consult with the standing
committees of Church and Israel, Church and Theology, and Ecumenism on issues
that are of vital importance to both denominations today. To understand each
other, and the position of our churches, it is essential to meet each other
in the setting in which each of us has to be "church." I myself experienced
last year, in the plenary session of your synod, in meetings with committees,
and in informal talks, how important these contacts are.

 It is a privilege, on behalf of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, to
greet you with the grace and peace of God, with the love of Jesus Christ our
Lord, and with the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the
communion which we share and experience, for words that encourage and for
words that admonish.

 The churches in Holland today are facing grave challenges. The past year,
too, thousands have turned their back on the church. The appeal of the
churches is slight. Religious questions are being asked no less than in the
past, but it is obvious that the words and answers of the church hold little
attractiveness and vitality for most people in our society. More churches are
being closed down and sold than are being built in new housing areas. Those
who look at figures only must make an effort not to become dominated by
gloominess and resignation. Those who manage to look past the figures see
live committees, in large cities and in the countries, small as they may be,
trying to be readable letters of Christ.

 As yet no one has spoken the final word that would halt the process of so
many turning their back on the church. We are trying - as we formulated in a
Mission Statement a few years ago - to be an open and inviting church
community in the footsteps of Jesus. This involves a search for unity and
efforts to end the disunity of Christ's church, insofar as we are able. The
unification process of the Dutch Reformed Church [Hervormde Kerk], the GKN,
and the Evangelical Lutheran Church must be seen in this light. For many in
our churches this process has been going on too long already. We have missed
the boat, they fear. Energies devoted to this cause should be used for more
urgent matters, for answers to the existential questions of people today. For
others, though, the unification process goes too fast. They want more time
for consultation among themselves. Still others do not want to be "Together
on the Way" (SoW ["Samen op Weg]) at all. The nearer the perspective of a
United Church, the stronger the aversion. One of the major questions we face
is the question of communicating the Gospel. How are we to talk about gospel,
church, and faith in such a way that we succeed in communicating to others
that it is good for us, and important. Believing and belonging to a church
have for some time now in Holland lost their self-evident character. Many
miss the words, no longer or not yet possessing them, to tell clearly what
faith means for them, which role it plays in their lives, and why it is
indispensable in their daily affairs. Many today are looking for words to
live on, for words to live in. Young people, too. Looking for their identity.
Looking for something to hold on to. Looking for a plain and clear message,
recognizable and contemporary. Does the church reach out to meet them? Or
does the church leave them out in the cold? We are aware that it is not words
that count here, but deed, and a wholehearted commitment. A day of synodical
reflection on church and youth resulted in a manifestation of young people,
held half a year ago. Thousands of young people in our country met to be
motivated and inspired, and to give new impulses to each other and to the
local churches. It is an encouraging beginning, but we must go on. We would
love to hear from you whether and how you manage to share your faith: among
yourselves in the first place, but then also with others, particularly with
young people. Do you succeed in keeping them involved in faith and church?
Could you show us where we make mistakes, where we overlook opportunities or
simply have them unused? How to you meet evangelicalism which of late in our
country attracts more young people than do the established churches? Have you
developed programs which might be of benefit to us? And what about your
worship services? In many of our congregations children remain involved until
their teens. Then they drop out. The first years, catechism classes are
attended rather faithfully. After that the groups may become very small.
Along various ways some of them may return to the church, but most young
people drop out for good. When it comes to this, the future causes us deep
concern. We wonder how that is in your denomination. We should like to learn
from you. There are so many questions in which, listening and seeking
together, we must help each other. Our point of departure is the same: the
Holy Scriptures as the sole rule for faith and life, together with the
ecumenical and Reformed creeds. But the social, cultural, and religious
situation in which we find ourselves is very different. That difference
colors our faith and the way we are church. The glasses through which, in a
spiritual sense, we look determine what we see, and what we do not see.
That's why we need each other, for again and again it turns out that churches
and believers see other things and go other ways, though their starting point
is the same. Taking for granted each other's integrity, we ought never to let
the legitimate question fall silent: What is it that makes you pick up other
things from Scripture than I do? Is it the Holy Spirit who grants this
insight, or in what way are we being influenced by the spirits of our times?
And, what can I - who am trying to be a disciple of Christ Jesus in quite
another context - learn from you?

 It is obvious that such questions cannot remain non-committal. They are
far-reaching and may lead to painful confrontations. Recently, we experienced
something of this. During the visit of three delegates of your church we
received your fraternal greetings. We not only heard sweet and kind words.
There were also undertones of bitterness.

 My words, spoken here last year, have shocked many of you. I would like to
underline that on that particular occasion I really did not have the
intention to be offensive by using Galatians 3:28. I was not aware of the
impact these words should have. On the other hand, many members of our Synod
were shocked by the words of your spokesman. Our starting point may be the
same, but our differences are considerable. For that matter, these
differences are there not only between our two denominations, but also among
our own Dutch congregations.

 The GKN have gone through several decades of strong polarization. Questions
of doctrine and life have left deep marks in our churches. We are grateful
that we have held together in all this. But the questions have not found
conclusive answers. Some are still on our tables. Others have been answers,
but the answers have raised new questions. Questions remain about the way the
Scriptures are to be understood in the turmoil of everyday life; about God's
guidance in our personal lives and His rule over all things; about the
meaning and the scope of the Atonement; and many other questions which our
daily life generates. All those questions bring us in the domain of
understanding and interpretation of the Bible - the domain of hermeneutics.
In a sense this hermeneutical reflection has been with the church from the
very outset. In the decades following World War II these questions have
become more insistent in our churches. The message of God's Word must ever
again be discovered anew in faith. Here we can be of help to each other, in
mutual consultation and reflection.

 There was a report of the Reformed Ecumenical Council (Athens 1992) about
hermeneutics and ethics. Further reflection on various diverse themes was
agreed upon. Our Synod has discussed this report in anticipation of the
meeting in Athens. Would it not be fruitful if the questions on which we now
seem to differ so profoundly were being discussed in a broader hermeneutical
framework? Mutually we would be able to do more justice to the "contextual
factors," as the report calls them, that is to say: those elements in the
situation of contemporary believers that have a legitimate relevance for
Christian obedience - elements which may well vary from place to place, from
time to time.

 At our Synod your spokesman used the image of the family to characterize the
relationship of our two denominations. No longer a mother-daughter relations.
We have long outgrown that. But the relation of brothers and sisters. One
moment they fight, the other moment they are friends again. But sometimes
they come to the sad discovery that in the course of time they have grown so
far apart that they must leave each other for good. I hope to have made it
clear in my address, brethren, that it would sorely grieve us should you feel
compelled to come to such a decision. The challenges facing us are too
formidable for each of us alone. We need each other. Not only to encourage
and confirm, but also to correct. To experience, to discover, that there are
other ways than our alone of doing things. Ways we may show each other.
Corrective voices which we must not deny each other. There may well be tense
moments in such a communion in faith. We are not out to seek this tension,
still less to create it. It may simply happen to us when we take each other
seriously.

 May God abundantly grant you the light of His Spirit in order that you as
Synod may wisely lead the churches in all the things to which you have been
called.

 




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file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-064.txt
.R.S.E. Vissinga