Media Coverage
RCA Synod opens talks on gays
Thursday, June 23, 2005
By Matt Vande Bunte
The Grand Rapids Press


SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Following a divisive trial that has polarized the Reformed Church in America, officials have decided to hire a facilitator to lead the denomination on a multi-year discussion of homosexuality.

The church's General Synod, which concluded Wednesday at Union College, approved a plan that aims to produce a final report on the issue by 2009.

The dialogue comes as many in the RCA are calling for reinforcement of the church's position against homosexual ministers and same-sex marriage. The Synod last week defrocked the Rev. Norman Kansfield, a former president of an RCA-affiliated seminary who last year presided over the wedding of his lesbian daughter to another woman.

Kansfield, 65, said the trial was a valuable forum to start discussing the place of gays in the RCA.

"This issue defines the church and whether the church is going to be more concerned about purity or sharing the gospel. You can't do both of those at once," he said.

The Synod voted by a 2-1 margin that Kansfield violated RCA beliefs and his ordination vows by performing his daughter's wedding.

Kansfield, a Hope College graduate and former librarian at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, called suspension of his pastoral status "harsh."

The Rev. Sherwin Weener, executive minister of the Synod of the Great Lakes, called the trial an "agonizing experience" that pitted church leaders with a genuine compassion for gays against those with deep convictions the Bible says homosexuality is wrong. He said it was "a defining moment for the RCA."

RCA leaders fear disagreement over homosexuality could threaten the unity of the church, and distract the denomination from meeting its 10-year goal of starting 400 new churches. The damage already may be done, said the Rev. Andrew DeBraber, an ordained RCA minister now serving as pastor of Douglas Congregational United Church of Christ.

"If you aren't going to welcome people into the church, then it's going to be a hard go of it to get them started," said DeBraber, a former pastor at Trinity Reformed Church in Grand Rapids.




ecclesia reformata, sed semper reformanda