Conference Looks at Belhar Confession
May 7, 2008 -- More than 100 Christian Reformed pastors and others gathered in Kalamazoo, Mich. recently to reflect on the themes of racial unity, justice, and reconciliation contained in the Belhar Confession.
Meeting at Heritage Christian Reformed Church, the participants came from all over the United States and Canada to attend this yearâ??s â??Black and Reformed Conference.â?? The annual conference is sponsored by Christian Reformed Home Missions (CRHM) and has a different focus every year.
â??We are looking at the Belhar Confession this year and want to get feedback on this document,â?? said Rev. Robert Price, leader of CRHMâ??s black and urban ministry team.
The hope, said Price, is to build a consensus among CRC congregations on the value of the Belhar and then to ask Synod 2009 to adopt it as a formal creed of the denomination.
Originally written in Afrikaans and accepted by the synod of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) in South Africa, the Belhar Confession is named after a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, where a general synod of the DRMC met in 1982.
Among other things, the confession underscores for Christians that racial reconciliation should be a hallmark of their faith. The document emerged out of the DRMCâ??s fight to help end apartheid, the policy that used biblical teachings to separate the races in South African society.
The Belhar Confession states that Christians should reject any doctrine that sanctions â??in the name of the gospel or of the will of God the forced separation of people on the grounds of race or color.â??
The CRC has been asked by a group of Reformed churches in South Africa to consider making the Belhar Confession one of the churchâ??s formal creeds.
â??We believe that God has given us the Belhar as a gift that can help us address racism with scriptural principles,â?? said Rev. Al Mulder, one of the coordinators of the conference. Mulder is a member of CRHMâ??s Great Lakes Ministry Team.
In an e-mail sent out to conference leaders before they met, Mulder wrote: â??Your primary task is to help your group grasp the significance of what the Belhar says, and to help them think creatively about how it instructs and challenges us?individually, and as members of local congregations and the CRC denomination.â??
Mulder is also editor of Learning to Count to One: The Joy and Pain of Becoming a Multiracial Church.
As part of the recent conference, participants prayed and sang and worshipped together. They heard presentations on the history of racism in Reformed churches and talked about how to best communicate to their churches and denominational agencies and organizations the value of the Belhar Confession and why they think it should become a creed of the church.
â??We need to lock arms together and adopt a confession that will really move our church along,â?? said Victoria Proctor-Gibbs, a member of CRHMâ??s Great Lakes Ministry Team and one of the coordinators of the conference.
But before a collective voice to push for adoption of the Belhar can be created, Proctor-Gibbs told conference participants that they needed to examine their own beliefs about racism. Then, she said, â??can we abandon the lies of the enemy and adopt a newness in Christ so that we can move a document out that can serve ourselves and our church well.â??
Rev. Jerome Burton, pastor of Coit Community Church in Grand Rapids, said that the conference was not only for blacks. Rather, it was put on by a group of black CRC pastors and others who are hoping in coming months to encourage everyone in the church â??to look at what the Belhar Confession says about the issues of race and inclusiveness.â??
Among those attending was Rev. Robert DeVries, a white pastor from Jackson, Mich. Retired from full-time ministry, he serves as pastor of a fellowship for persons who are disabled. Every Sunday, he says, he helps conduct a special-needs worship service.
â??This is my chance to learn more about the theology of inclusiveness and particularly how the Belhar Confession speaks to the disabled,â?? he said.
Meanwhile, the CRCâ??s Interchurch Relations Committee is holding regional dialogues across the denomination to familiarize churches with the confession and its issues and stimulate discussion towards its possible recommendation.
Chris Meehan, CRC Communications
----------------------------------
Chris Meehan News and Media Relations Christian Reformed Church in North America www.crcna.org