Why Would Someone Attend Synod?
What is a Synod? an ecclesiastical governing or advisory council (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Why would someone attend a Synod? That’s a good question and the start of a somewhat long story.
Was it fun? Not so much fun, but much more interesting than I thought!
So, first a bit of background. Sanctuary is a congregation within the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA). The CRCNA is organized into local groups of churches. Each group of churches is called a “Classis”. Every year, each of the 47 Classes (http://www.crcna.org/pages/classis.cfm) elects 4 delegates (2 ministers and 2 elders) to attend Synod. Broadly speaking, Synod has two main functions: it conducts the routine business of the denomination and addresses special concerns brought to it by a Classis or a member church. Routine business includes oversight of denominational agencies that do mission and outreach work and publish materials, supervision of Calvin College and Calvin Seminary, and consideration of matters related to other colleges associated with the CRCNA, and supervision of ministers within the denomination. The second category is harder to define but includes many different issues such as how the denomination is governed, what the denomination collectively believes doctrinally, and how churches should deal with issues of social justice. Typically, Synod assigns such an issue to a committee or task force that then meets over the course of a year or two in order to consider the issue and write a report that includes a set of recommendations. This report is delivered to all CRCNA churches for discussion at Classis meetings and then for decision on the report’s recommendations at Synod.
And now the story. At its meeting in the summer of 2010, Synod asked for the creation of a task force to address the issue of Creation Care, with special attention paid to the subject of climate change. The denominational officers were charged with finding members of the denomination to serve on the task force. I was asked and agreed to do so. The eleven members were spread geographically from Washington DC to Seattle and New Mexico to central British Columbia. We met in February of 2011 and had to deliver a report by the end of October in order to have it considered by Synod 2012. The long lead-time is required so that churches and Classes have time to consider the report before action is taken in the summer. As you might imagine, this was a tall order because we had to a) decide on the scope of our report, b) agree what we as a task force were going to say about that scope, and c) write the report. Part a) went pretty quickly, but parts b) and c), not so fast! We met in person three times and had lots of conference calls. When the report was finished, we submitted it to the denominational office and they distributed it to the churches. (All materials for Synod, including our report, are available at http://www.crcna.org/pages/synod_front.cfm; look under “Reports” on the bottom right.) One of the first formal acts of our committee was to elect a Chair, Dr. Cal DeWitt, and one of the last acts was to elect a Reporter, me. The two of us were the formal representatives of our task force to Synod.
So, off to Synod Cal and I went to present the report. Synod was held at Redeemer College in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. The meeting started on Friday morning, June 7, with a worship service and concluded on Thursday afternoon, June 14, with a worship service. Worship is front and center at Synod. In addition to the opening and closing, we had worship services at the beginning of every day, a formal worship service with communion on Sunday, and a service of singing on Sunday evening. It is an amazing experience to stand on the floor of Synod surrounded by a sea of voices singing psalms and hymns with vigor and joy!
As is customary, our report was referred to an advisory committee that met Friday afternoon and evening and all day (9:00 am to 9:30 pm with only food breaks!) on Saturday. We didn’t conclude our work on Saturday, so were forced to hold additional meetings during the next week. The committee’s job was to decide what to do with our Task Force recommendations. The short answer is that the committee decided to send our recommendations, slightly altered, to the floor of Synod. Cal and I were delighted because the committee might well have decided to alter them significantly or oppose them. Our turn for discussion on the floor finally arrived on Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm. Cal and I were granted the “privilege of the floor” for the discussion, which means that we were allowed to respond to the questions and comments of the delegates. Since there was some opposition to the recommendations of our report, the discussion was tense at times, but also respectful and thoughtful. It took two and a half hours on Wednesday evening to pass the first four recommendations, which contained the meat of our recommendations, and then one to two hours to complete the discussion the next morning. That was a long time, but very rewarding for Cal and me after our hours of putting the report together.
What are my impressions of Synod? As I mentioned earlier, it is truly a worshiping community; I was very impressed with the spirit of unity that I found at Synod and the daily worship certainly helps that. I was equally impressed with the sense of gravity and thoughtfulness among the delegates. They took their responsibilities seriously, worked long hours, and prayed diligently for our deliberations. Synod is hard work for delegates, although not so hard for people in my role because that role is limited. Synod ran from 8:30 in the morning to 9:00 at night pretty much every day other than Sunday, so there wasn’t a lot to time for recreation. Fellowship came during mealtimes and late in the evening. I encourage our elders to think about attending Synod. I know it is a long week that could be spent doing something else, but it provides one with a very different sense of the community of believers and the world-wide reach of our church.