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23-April-1997 
97173 
 
         Reformed Church in America Decides Not to Make  
              Clergy Affirm Christ as Sole Salvation 
 
                          by Tracy Early 
                  Ecumenical News International 
 
NEW YORK CITY--Regional units of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) have 
turned down a proposal for the church to require an annual affirmation from 
clergy that salvation is through "Christ alone." 
 
     A vote on the proposal, which would also have covered some lay 
leaders, was ordered by the denomination's General Synod last year after 
controversy about a minister in the church who taught that non-Christians 
could receive salvation through other channels. 
 
     Approval by two-thirds of the church's regional units -- known as 
classes (CLASS-ees) -- is required for a constitutional change. The 
denomination announced on April 1 that 21 classes had disapproved, 19 
approved  and 6 were yet to report. 
 
     Richard A. Rhem, the Michigan pastor at the center of the controversy, 
has since resigned his RCA credentials. He told ENI on April 10 that he did 
not interpret all the votes against the proposal as support for his 
position, but he called the result "healthy." 
 
     "It was fortunate for the more moderate voices in the church that it 
was defeated," he said. "This will continue to allow for a wider spectrum 
of opinion." 
 
     The proposal was "intended to narrow down" the spectrum of opinion in 
the church, and some people voted against it because they saw "a spirit of 
witch hunting,"  he said. 
 
     Rhem and his congregation, Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, 
Michigan, left the RCA to become independent.  He said the congregation 
might become affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC), and that a 
new member of  the congregation's clergy staff would be ordained this 
spring under UCC auspices.  Also, a UCC clergy couple were being added to 
the staff. 
 
     Because of the controversy, the congregation lost between 100 and 150 
of its 2,000 members, Rhem said.  "But we didn't lose any of the core.  We 
have had great solidarity." 
 
     Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, RCA general secretary, told ENI on April 
12 that  it was "easy to misinterpret" the vote against the proposed 
constitutional  change. 
 
     "It was not a vote on the substance of the theological issue," he 
said.  "The question was whether it was of sufficient importance that it 
needed to be added to the questions that have historically been asked of 
the clergy each year." 
 
     Clergy are already asked whether the preaching in their churches is in 
accord with the Word of God and the RCA standards -- the Heidelberg 
Catechism,  the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dort. 
 
     Granberg-Michaelson said that the RCA synod adopted a resolution last 
year stating that "Christ alone saves" and "there is salvation in no one 
else." 
 
     In view of that reaffirmation, he said, many people felt the proposed 
constitutional change was "redundant" and that adoption would seem like 
church  members were "casting a lot of suspicion on one another." 
 
     He said he knew of only one other member of the RCA clergy, a campus 
minister in Michigan, who had publicly supported Rhem's position.  That 
minister had been given an "admonition" by the Kalamazoo Classis, and he 
was appealing to the regional synod. 
      
     "The church by and large feels the issue was settled at General Synod, 
and it is far more important to be engaged together in mission," 
Granberg-Michaelson said. 
 
     He said the General Synod Council had just completed a meeting at 
which it adopted a statement of mission for the coming century.  The RCA 
was recognizing that it lived in "a culture of disbelief" in the  United 
States and that each American congregation needed to begin thinking of 
itself as working in a mission country. 
 
     In a way different from even the recent past, U.S. congregations were 
confronting a culture in which the question of whether worship or soccer 
was more important became a live issue, Granberg-Michaelson said. 
 
     For a church attempting to operate in this kind of mission situation, 
the proposed addition to the constitution looked like "a secondary  issue," 
he said. 
 
     Granberg-Michaelson said a positive result of the controversy had been 
the stimulation of more serious theological study.  Last year's General 
Synod directed the Theological Commission to study the topic of the 
uniqueness of Christ in a pluralistic culture. 
 
     American Christians today were likely to find adherents of 
non-Christian  religions in their own neighborhoods, Granberg-Michaelson 
said.  "We are all now having to deal with questions that formerly were 
faced only by missionaries." 

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