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Response to the Address of Reverend J Plug, by Reverend W Huizinga
on behalf of Synod
Wednesday 9th July 2003 - Synod Rockingham, Western Australia, 2003
Thank you, Rev J Plug, for your address, your greetings, your information and your comments on behalf of the Reformed Churches in The Netherlands.
We are very happy that our Dutch sister churches continue to visit us, even with two delegates. It shows us that your love and concern for us is indeed genuine. That is the first purpose of sister relations. By your presence at our synods you display how you wish in a practical manner want to be a hand and a foot to us.
You addressed the question of what it means to be reformed? It is clear that you stress the fundamental pillars of the church, namely, the Scriptures as confessed in the Three Forms of Unity. You do not want to be known as reformed churches of a certain garden-variety, but rather show that you want to truly catholic, in the line of the church of all ages.
In consequence you wish to be judged on the basis of the decisions of the churches as they meet in general synods. That is fair enough, and we endeavour to do so.
You state your stance on the Call to Reformation as sent out by about forty of your church members. You state that it is not fair, not truly reformed and is largely counter-productive. At this point in time our deputies have refrained from making a judgment. The Acts of your General Synod of Zuidhorn have after all not reached us, have not reached the churches and the members in your churches. We need to give time to your churches to read and review those actions of Zuidhorn. Meanwhile our deputies keep themselves informed. They read not only the Call to Reformation but also the many, various articles in your church magazines. Those responses give us a good insight to this movement as well as how it is received in your churches. Since I am speaking on behalf of synod and deputies, it is inappropriate that more be said.
As far as the Call to Reformation itself goes our synod has received it for our information and it will serve during our discussion about our sister relations with you. More cannot be said at this point.
We do want to thank you again for the excellent reception you gave our delegates last year when they visited the GS Zuidhorn. We enjoyed your synod as we stated in our address. For example, the multiplicity of your foreign relations means that you have many foreign delegates at your general synods. It was a pleasure to meet many of them, and to hear them in their mother tongues, with the help of interpreters, address synod. I have fond memories of Rev Mada Biha of the GGRI explaining in Indonesian how many evangelists in their midst work with empty stomachs. As I translated this into English for the Kenyan brothers beside me, they broke out into loud laughter, and they whispered to me - we have that all the time! A more difficult task was to translate into English the impassioned Rev P Nel as he spoke in Afrikaans about their difficulties with the Dopperkerken in Zuid Afrika. He was too quick for me. But it was a pleasure to see how you have many relations, how you offer many foreign churches a variety of help and support.
Also we thank you that you took our concerns seriously. You organised meetings between our delegates and your deputies before we visited synod. Thank you for those three days which offered much opportunity for discussions together. Your help in passing on our letters of concern to the GS Zuidhorn was also much appreciated. As a result those letters were adopted as part of the material on agenda. GS Zuidhorn even promised us as sister churches separate answers to those letters. We look forward to the answers.
You noted the growing secularisation in The Netherlands. It means that the Reformed Churches in The Netherlands are churches at risk. But you are not the only ones. Many of the same trends occur here as well. May the Triune God guard you with the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit as you struggle not to succumb to our sworn enemies. May He strengthen and uphold you so that you always firmly resist our enemies, until the Day of our LORD comes in which He gives us the complete victory. We are also prepared to use our rules for sister churches to encourage and exhort you to live as reformed churches in the midst of a darkening world. We hope you do the same for us.
Thanks for your cooperation on two key matters - the RCNZ and the PCEA. We asked you to keep the matter of triangular relations - the RCNZ & CRCA & FRCA - before the RCNZ. You have done that. Thank you. Also, you attended the 2003 General Assembly of the PCEA and encouraged them in a very practical manner to renew the dialogue with us. In these two important relations you have kept your word, and have helped us.
You appeal to us to re-engage reformed and presbyterian churches in Australia. You do not specify which churches you mean, but I take it you refer to the CRCA & PCEA.
Our deputies have worked hard over the years to engage the CRCA in meaningful dialogue. We managed to clear away historical problems from the past but we could not overcome problems concerning the present. At present the dialogue ceases. That is unfortunate, but we cannot force them to listen to our appeals.
Concerning the PCEA, we thank you for your efforts, but it seems that we are faced with the challenging question to recognise them as true churches before meaningful dialogue will be possible with them.
You also ask us to rejoin the ICRC. You miss us. Thank you for that. You know that we took that decision on practical grounds. For us to rejoin would require a local church or local churches to overture classis to rejoin the ICRC and for classis to overture a forthcoming synod. Thus please do not expect that to happen at this synod.
In conclusion, we wish you a fruitful stay in our midst. We hope you enjoy our hospitality. It is a pleasure to have you in our midst and to use your experience at our synod.
May the head of the churches direct the sister churches in The Netherlands according to his Word and by his Spirit, so that He may use you fruitfully for varied service and for the coming of his kingdom. May He keep you faithful to Himself and to his Word so that the lampstands there may remain and may penetrate the darkening, secularised society with clear light.
Rev W Huizinga
last updated 23 Jul 2003
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