GA Votes to Explore Joint Meetings
with Reformed Churches
Louisville, Kentucky (June 16, 1999)-The 27th PCA General Assembly this morning voted to approve an overture from Philadelphia Presbytery, which asks for a study as to how the highest judicatories of several Reformed denominations could meet together in a national synod. The recommendation was approved after commissioners debated whether or not it was wise to explore such joint meetings if there was not a serious intention of actually becoming one with those other bodies.
The overture had been referred to two committees-Interchurch Relations Committee (IRC) and the Administrative Committee (AC). Both IRC and AC Permanent Committees had recommended approval of the proposal, as had the IRC Committee of Commissioners. Disagreeing with the proposal was the AC Committee of Commissioners. Its Chairman, Sam Duncan, the Moderator of the 1997 General Assembly, presented his committee's rationale.
Arguing for the overture was another former Assembly Moderator, Dr. Will Barker of Philadelphia Presbytery. Also speaking in favor was the Rev. Mr. Tom Vanden Heuvel, formerly a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, and Editor of the Outlook. It was in that conservative magazine in which the original proposal by Dr. Robert Godfrey regarding the joint meetings appeared.