From: Darrell128 Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 17:23:51 EST Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: NR 98007: Cl. Chatham Rejects Effort to Revise Property Rules NR #1998-007: Chatham Rejects Effort to Revise Property Rules When Wyoming Christian Reformed Church of Ontario split in 1991, the seceders who formed Covenant Christian Church and the majority remaining in the CRC didn't descend into a spiral of bitterness. The Wyoming CRC continues to be conservative, the church sent delegates to the Interclassical Conference, and its pastor has assisted in pastoral work during the vacancy at Covenant Christian Church, now a member of the United Reformed Churches. However, none of that helped Wyoming CRC pastor Rev. Ken Benjamins in convincing his classis to overture Synod 1998 to revise the procedure for churches leaving the Christian Reformed denomination. NR 1998-007: For Immediate Release: Chatham Rejects Effort to Revise Property Rules by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service LONDON, ONTARIO (January 29, 1998) - When Wyoming Christian Reformed Church of Ontario split in 1991, the seceders who formed Covenant Christian Church and the majority remaining in the CRC didn't descend into a spiral of bitterness. The Wyoming CRC continues to be conservative, the church sent delegates to the Interclassical Conference, and its pastor has assisted in pastoral work during the vacancy at Covenant Christian Church, now a member of the United Reformed Churches. However, none of that helped Wyoming CRC pastor Rev. Ken Benjamins in convincing his classis to overture Synod 1998 to revise the procedure for churches leaving the Christian Reformed denomination. "Seeing that our congregation has already gone through this, we don't want to see a process in place that makes things more difficult," said Benjamins in defending his church's overture to the January 27 meeting of Classis Chatham. "What do we fear? What we fear is this particular process that is in place. What we are afraid of is that this overturns the bounds of normal church polity," said Benjamins. "We see the potential of schisms occurring when the classis gets too involved in something that is really the local church's business." Wyoming CRC's overture cited a number of objections to the proposed Christian Reformed process for seceding from the denomination. "The procedure for disaffiliation adopted by Synod 1997 violates in crucial ways the stipulations of Articles 27 (the authority of councils being original, that of major assemblies being delegated') and 95 (No church shall in any way lord it over another church') of the Church Order," according to the overture. "Entrance into and departure from a denominational affiliation are matters that belong to the original authority of the council. The procedure adopted by Synod 1997 for disaffiliation would allow, perhaps even encourage, the churches of classis to lord it over the council and church that sought to disaffiliate." "It is assumed that the denomination is the church and that what we call the local' council and congregation is dependent for its origin and right to exist upon the classis and denomination," according to the overture. "That is a principle that is neither biblical nor historically true." Despite objecting to the proposed secession procedure, Benjamins made clear that his church had no plans to follow Covenant Christian Church out of the CRC. "When we sent our overture to classis we were afraid you would look at our overture and say, Hey, that's Wyoming, they want to leave,'" said Benjamins. "That is not at all the case." Benjamins' argument didn't persuade the classis. "There is no biblical way we can divide the church; the Bible calls us to be one," said Rev. Peter Nicolai of Grace CRC in Chatham. "What has happened in a number of situations is that councils have recommended to their congregations that they withdraw from their denomination as a congregation. This is unreformed, you can't get more congregational than to withdraw from a denomination." Benjamins wasn't the only pastor of a split church to speak on the matter. Rev. John Hellinga from Aylmer CRC, whose congregation also saw a minority secede to join what is now the United Reformed Churches, argued that Wyoming's overture would encourage rather than discourage church splits. "We've heard a lot about the autonomy of the local church, and that's a doctrine that is close to our hearts, but we need to be careful when we talk about this," said Hellinga. "We have indeed as a local congregation said, this is the classis and synod to which we have delegated our authority." Rev. Robert Haven of Good News CRC in London compared the synodical procedure for disaffiliation to procedures for divorce decrees. "I don't think any churches entered into this denominational covenant with division in mind, but what do you do when you do have irreconcilable differences?" asked Haven. "The intent was not to lord it over,' but to plead for an amicable resolution of our differences." In the end, Wyoming CRC's overture was rejected by a wide voice vote. Church representatives said they weren't yet certain whether they would be sending their overture on to Synod 1998 without classical endorsement. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1997-063: Christian Reformed Synod 1997 Faces Crossroads Decision: Will Seceding Churches Keep Their Property? #1997-073: Synod Modifies Local Church Property Rights Contact List: Rev. Ken Benjamins, Pastor, Wyoming Christian Reformed Church PO Box 445, 529 Superior St., Wyoming, ON N0N 1T0 O: (519) 845-0244 * H: (519) 845-3442 Rev. Robert Haven, Pastor, Good News Christian Reformed Church RR #1, Dorchester, ON N0L 1G4 O: (519) 268-3785 * H: (519) 268-8403 * FAX: (519) 268-8403 * E-Mail: bhaven@sympatico.ca Rev. John D. Hellinga, Pastor, Aylmer Christian Reformed Church 8 Sinclair Cres., Aylmer, ON N5H 3B7 O: (519) 773-3025 * H: (519) 773-8250 * FAX: (519) 773-3043 * E-Mail: hellinga@kanservu.ca Rev. Peter Nicolai, Pastor, Grace Christian Reformed Church 247 Tweedsmuir Ave. West, Chatham, ON N7M 2A7 H/O: (519) 354-3807 * E-Mail: pnicolai@ciaccess ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive98: nr98-007.txt .