NR #1996-082: Will the Year of Penance Perish? The Christian Reformed synod.has voted to radically pare the requirements for graduates of other seminaries to enter the CRC ministry, provided that they are over the age of 40, and has also appointed a committee to study the longstanding practice of requiring graduates of other seminaries to attend Calvin Theological Seminary. NR #1996-082: For Immediate Release Will the Year of Penance Perish? * Synod Modifies Required Year of Study at Calvin Seminary for Older Grads of Other Seminaries, Appoints Study Committee to Review Requirement by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (June 19, 1996) URNS - Synod 1996 will likely be remembered for its high-profile decisions on women in office, relations with the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland, abortion, and homosexuality. However, one of its less-heralded decisions may prove even more important. In Article 6b, the Christian Reformed church order specifies that "graduates of the theological seminary of the Christian Reformed Church who have been declared candidates for the ministry of the Word by the churches shall be eligible for call." A similar rule in Article 6c states that "those who have been trained elsewhere shall not be eligible for call unless they have met the requirements stipulated in the synodical regulations and have been declared by the churches to be candidates for the ministry of the Word." While the church order only states that such persons are declared candidates "by the churches," successive synods since at least 1892 have ruled that the declaration is to be made by synod rather than by the local churches or regional classes. Since at least 1924, the "synodical regulations" mentioned in Article 6c governing candidacy for graduates of schools other than Calvin Seminary have included a requirement that such persons complete a final year of study at Calvin during which they undergo an intensive period of scrutiny by the faculty and board of trustees. While not formally required by synod, Calvin Seminary also has more courses in its admission requirements than most seminaries which means that students whose college work was not in a pre-seminary track sometimes must complete significant undergraduate course work concurrent with their initial seminary studies. Officially known as the "Special Program for Ministerial Candidacy," the ecclesiastical year at Calvin is more commonly known by its acronym "SPMC" or informally dubbed the "year of penance." Similar rules still prevail in the Netherlands, where each of the major Reformed denominations maintains one or more seminaries closely linked with the churches. However, most American denominations have long since abandoned or significantly weakened such rules, with the result that the CRC has stricter requirements for ordination than almost any other sizeable North American Protestant denomination. While many in the CRC are proud of its high ordination standards, the unintended consequences of those standards have become a source of concern rather than pride. The 1996 CRC yearbook reported that 142 of the CRC's 991 churches and ministries were without a pastor. While Synod 1996 declared 21 men and three women eligible for call, that number won't help much in light of 24 ministerial retirements which were also approved by Synod 1996. A pastoral vacancy rate of over 14% has also led an increasing number of churches to utilize two "exception clauses" in Church Order Articles 7 and 8 to call pastors ordained in other denominations or to ordain persons without theological training who have "exceptional gifts." Both "exception clauses" may be utilized by a classis but do not require synodical involvement apart from the approval of three synodical deputies from neighboring classes. This year, classes gave 27 men initial or final approval to enter the CRC ministry - making the exception more frequent than the prescribed route of seminary training. In still other cases, churches and classes have avoided synodical approval entirely by hiring a pastor as "stated supply" or ordaining the prospective pastor as an "evangelist" rather than as a minister of the Word. One classis, acting through its home missions board, even hired the wife of a Christian Reformed minister, a Princeton Seminary graduate and member of the Presbyterian Church (USA) who has since been ordained in that denomination, to serve as co-pastor of a mission church. While the action did not require synodical approval, this year's synod rejected an appeal from Newton (NJ) CRC against this arrangement, arguing that the female PC(USA) minister had been hired as a lay evangelist and her membership in another denomination and ordained status did not constitute a barrier to her employment. Dissatisfaction with the strictness of the Christian Reformed ordination process ranges across the entire spectrum of the CRC but is heard most frequently in its conservative wing and among ethnic minorities. Many of those admitted to the CRC ministry through the exception clauses of Articles 7 and 8 have been members of ethnic minority groups and most of those entering the Special Program for Ministerial Candidacy in recent years have been graduates of conservative seminaries such as Westminster and Mid-America. A number of Christian Reformed graduates of those seminaries have entered the ministry in other denominations to avoid Calvin Seminary entirely. A number of recent synods have considered and rejected proposals, usually from conservative churches and classes, to abolish or amend the Calvin Seminary attendance requirements. This year, however, synod responded more favorably to overtures from Classis Illiana and Newton CRC and a report from the Calvin Seminary board by drastically paring the residency requirement for candidates over the age of 40 to one ten-week quarter of residency at the seminary and by appointing a study committee to review the requirement entirely. "These questions are crucial to the unity and the vitality of the CRC," observed synod in adopting the advisory committee's recommendations. "A responsible report - examined by the churches, debated in its assemblies, and yielding constructive recommendations in tune with our times - would serve our churches well." The ten-member study committee appointed by Synod 1996 and scheduled to report to Synod 1999 includes representatives of four of the CRC's major ethnic groups, many of which have found it difficult or impossible to obtain ethnic minority pastoral candidates from Calvin Seminary. In addition, at least half of the committee's membership is identified with or sympathetic to the conservative wing of the CRC - including Elder Robert den Dulk, former president of Westminster Theological Seminary in California, and Dr. Edna Greenway, former professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Cross-References to Related Articles: [No related articles on file] Contact List: NOTE TO EDITORS: Most synodical delegates are staying on the campus of Calvin College. To reach delegates in their dormitory rooms during Synod 1996, expected to adjourn on or before June 20, call Calvin College at (616) 957-0000 or contact the synodical news office at the following numbers: Synod News Office: Press Officers Rev. Robert De Moor and Rachel Boehm Van Harmelen O: (616) 957-8652 * F: (616) 957-6469 Pre-Recorded Synod News Hotline: (616) 224-0841 or toll-free (888) 277-9663 Dr. James A. De Jong, President, Calvin Theological Seminary 3233 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4387 O: (616) 957-6086 * H: (616) 957-6087 * FAX: (616) 957-8621 * E-Mail: DEJJ@Calvin.edu Elder Robert den Dulk, Past President, Westminster Theological Seminary in California c/o First CRC, 2175 Leoni Dr., Hanford, CA 93230 * O: (209) 584-2235 Rev. Casey Freswick, Pastor, Newton Christian Reformed Church 47 Condit St., Newton, NJ 07860 * O: (201) 383-9635 * H: (201) 383-2263 * E-Mail: CFrez@aol.com Dr. Edna Greenway 3233 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4387 * O: (616) 957-6933 * H: (616) 874-7039 * FAX: (616) 957-8621 Rev. Linda Rubingh, Co-Pastor, New City Christian Reformed Church 146 Bentley #2, Jersey City, NJ 07304 * H: (201) 915-9796 * E-Mail: New-citych@aol.com Rev. Laryn Zoerhof, Stated Clerk, Classis Illiana 8910 Grace St., Highland, IN 46322 * O: (219) 838-6231 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-082.txt .