United Church of Christ welcomes dually-affiliated Reformed Church in America congregations

[Raphael Jauregui]

On May 5, 2017, the United Church of Christ and Reformed Church in America, which are in full communion, announced the formation of a dually-affiliated association of congregations in New York that are both UCC and RCA.

Reformed Churches' new UCC affiliation expands ministry in New York

 

[Basil the Great]

Perhaps they will merge eventually? I still wonder why the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church have never united? I get the sense that the Reformed Church in America is more moderate than the Christian Reformed Church, but I have not thoroughly researched the matter.

 

[The Liturgist]

Perhaps they will merge eventually? I still wonder why the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church have never united? I get the sense that the Reformed Church in America is more moderate than the Christian Reformed Church, but I have not thoroughly researched the matter.

The Reformed Church in America is based on a continental Presbyterian model, with churches grouped into “classis”. A merger would require rejecting Congregationalism. But that did happen in India, Australia, Canada and the UK, so I suppose its possible, but I would be sad for both churches if it happened.

 

[hedrick]

Perhaps they will merge eventually? I still wonder why the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church have never united? I get the sense that the Reformed Church in America is more moderate than the Christian Reformed Church, but I have not thoroughly researched the matter.

Yes. The CRC is a bit more conservative. In particular, there are gay pastors in the RCA, and it appears that synods effectively can permit gay marriage. That would not be the case in the CRC.

 

[Basil the Great]

Yes. The CRC is a bit more conservative. In particular, there are gay pastors in the RCA, and it appears that synods effectively can permit gay marriage. That would not be the case in the CRC.

Wow... I was not aware that the RCA has gay pastors and that their pastors can probably perform gay marriage, though I suspect that such depends upon where the local church is located, with the two coasts more liberal than the relatively conservative rural and small town MidWest.

 

[hedrick]

Wow... I was not aware that the RCA has gay pastors and that their pastors can probably perform gay marriage, though I suspect that such depends upon where the local church is located, with the two coasts more liberal than the relatively conservative rural and small town MidWest.

I believe it depends upon the synod. The RCA had a regulation that made gay marriage a chargeable offense. It was removed on the grounds that it interfered with the rights of the synods to make decisions about pastors. This was a polity issue that doesn't necessarily reflect an intent to make it local-option. There are still national policies in place rejecting homosexuality, but apparently it's not enforceable. Thus de facto decisions are left to regional and local bodies.

I'm not part of the RCA, and don't follow news there. Thus I risk missing crucial details. However it *appears* that this is an account of a gay marriage in an RCA church: New Paltz same-sex wedding challenges Reformed Church doctrine. What I don't know is whether any action was taken in church courts afterwards. I haven't found anything through Google talking about it.

(I should note that I personally wouldn't belong to any church unless it permits gay marriage.)

In a quick search I was unable to find out whether the CRC enforces its national policy. It does appear that more conservative churches have been leaving over signs of liberalization, so it may well just be a matter of time.

 

[Basil the Great]

I believe it depends upon the synod. The RCA had a regulation that made gay marriage a chargeable offense. It was removed on the grounds that it interfered with the rights of the synods to make decisions about pastors. There are still policies in place rejecting homosexuality, but it's not enforceable. Thus de facto decisions are left to regional and local bodies.

I'm not part of the RCA, and don't follow news there. Thus I risk missing crucial details. However it *appears* that this is an account of a gay marriage in an RCA church: New Paltz same-sex wedding challenges Reformed Church doctrine. What I don't know is whether any action was taken in church courts afterwards. I haven't found anything through Google talking about it.

(I should note that I personally wouldn't belong to any church unless it permits gay marriage.)

I always appreciate your extensive knowledge of many Protestant groups, hedrick. I see that the link is to a NY church. My guess is that CA and NY churches are one thing, but I suspect that performing gay marriage in SW Michigan and especially in rural NW Iowa is much less likely. However, that may change with time?

 

[hedrick]

It's interesting to see that the Methodists are moving in a direction that will likely result in acceptance of gays and gay marriage in large parts of the US. There's a backlash against the plan adopted last Spring, which would result in withdrawal of many (maybe even most) Methodist churches and/or conferences from the denomination. Key African leaders want to keep the Church together, and propose the only sane approach: creating one or more US Central Conferences. Those conferences would have the same rights as African conferences, which includes adapting the Discipline to local needs. Most US central conferences would permit "local option" if allowed to.

I say this is the only sane approach because at the moment there are regional conferences for everywhere except the US. That means that US issues have to be handled in the global meeting. As the majority of Methodists are now outside the US, they're getting tired of having US-specific issues dominate what is supposed to be global meetings. Creating US conferences with the same level of autonomy as non-US conferences would let them fight out the LBGT issues internally, and let the global group deal with issues that matter to the global church.

(Of course this change could lead to some conservative churches withdrawing. However (1) that's probably fewer than would leave under the current plan and (2) they're leaving anyway.)

 

[The Liturgist]

So actually, I looked into this using my UCC contacts, and the reason these Reformed Churches are entering into dual-affiliation with the RCC is to enable gay marriage, which for me as a Faithful and Welcoming UCC member (a part of our UCC confessing movement that began as the Biblical Witness Fellowship in the 2000s), is a bit hard to hear.