Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June/90

Contributor - Henry VanEssen

Title - Newness of Life

Topic - Reformed Church In Canada

Dear Fellow-believers, who have been made free in Christ. Yesterday I rose again in newness of life. That, of course, should be no startling news to you. For the old teacher of the Reformation asked already many centuries ago, "What is the true repentance or conversion of man? It is the dying of the old nature and the coming to fife of the new.' (Heidelberg Catechism, Question & Answer 88). Being born again is something which lasts until we are called before the Throne. So the coming to life in us of the new nature should be a daily occurrence. But the new cannot come to life in us unless and until the old has died. What then died and what then rose again yesterday? The answer to that question demands a moment of historical overview.

Around 1949 Dutch Reformed immigrants in Southern Ontario found no place where to worship according to their understanding of the Reformed faith. They also had to look hard for the Reformed Church in America.' When they found her they invited some of her elders and ministers to come to Chatham, Ont. and Hamilton, Ont. where they examined them very carefully. We have one of these original examiners in our midst-- Rev. John Moerman. When these immigrants were satisfied that in the RCA they could worship and serve our blessed God as they had promised back in The Netherlands upon their public confession of faith, they invited the RCA to come over and help them. Thus the RCA came into Canada again.'The denomination did so, however, only after offering first the United Church of Canada and then the Presbyterian Church in Canada financial aid and bilingual ministers to integrate this work into their respective denominations. Both declined. Thus the work began. But there was a time limit--ten years! After that the immigrants would be free to leave with their ecclesiastical possessions and go to the Canadian denomination of their choice. That decision was debated at the workshop in Hamilton, Ont. in the Spring of 1959.-' Some of us were there. Almost unanimously it was decided to stay with the RCA. That, however, was not the end of the struggle for existence but only the beginning. Small poor and of foreign culture, how were we to sing the Lord's song in a then still for us foreign land?

There continued to be those among the leadership in Canada who maintained that obedience to Christ's high priestly prayer demanded entrance into the Presbyterian Church in Canada. I remember hours and hours of discussion on this in Vancouver, B.C. in 1960-1961 and later on in the new Classis Ontario from 1963-1965. But when the internal struggle subsidized there remained the fact that we were no more than a small appendix to the whole denomination. For many people south of the border Canada remained the Great White North, 'eh"? Florida and California were exploding with churches. Who wanted Canada? Thus we sometimes had to fight for our existence against the mother who had adopted us.

That for which you struggle and fight becomes dear to you. You become protective against every possible threat, also to the threat of being overrun by spiritual refugees.' But, said Mordecai, the uncle of Esther, 'Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14. Abraham was ordered to offer his only son as a sacrifice to God (Genesis 22:2); and the Lord Jesus taught us that, 'Whoever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 16:25). In Romans 14.7,8 we are taught that, "None of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's."The dearest idol I have known had to be torn from my breast. This is not my Church, she is the Lord's. He gathers together unto Himself from among the lost children of the human race a Church unto life everlasting. Who knows whether the Reformed Church did not come to Canada for such a time as this?

And so what died yesterday in me was that narrow conception of the Reformed Church in Canada formed under a thirty year survival mentality. What arose in me is a wide open conception of the Reformed Church in Canada going into the future on the three legs of our Constitution.7 US. Yesterday I was liberated by the exodus of our brothers and sisters from that 'other place." (see reference to this phrase in footnote 1) This conference to me is therefore a liberating event as we are led by our King and Saviour out of our Dutch confinement. That does not mean that the future necessarily will be easy. We must learn to walk together, worship together, stand together, and fight side by side. We must learn to accept each other and work with each other, being accountable to each other according to our Constitution. But it thrills me to now be able to share those riches of our heritage of the Reformation which call for the total penetration and regeneration of our society. Our country is dear to us all. But in today's crisis its "shalom' depends on the obedience of the faith not only on Sunday morning but from Monday through Saturday by people of all walks of life. The Reformed faith is the fullest expression of the Gospel: it is catholic in that it leaves no area of life untouched; it is ecumenical in that it allows no part of this world to be autonomous. It is the way of the cross, dying to self, that having been crucified with Christ, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Galatians 2:20). What died were not my Reformed convictions. What died was the ever more narrowing and strangling outlook for the future of the Reformed Church in Canada.

"O Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee; I lay in dust life's glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be.'

1. A reference to the presentation the previous night by Rev. Leslie Clark, 'Picking up the Pieces: Helping Disillusioned Canadians Rediscover the Church"in which he mentioned that it was so hard to find the Reformed Church in Canada once it became clear to him and many with him on Vancouver Island, that their denomination, the United Church in Canada, had left them. He never referred to that denomination by name, but referred to it by the expression 'the other place.")

(NOTE: These footnotes were added by the author for clarification after the Conference and were not part of the original presentation.)

2. The Reformed Church first entered Canada to minister to her members who remained loyal to the British Empire during and after the American Revolution. These people, part of the Empire Loyalists, settled along the Western shore of the St. Lawrence river in Ontario as they fled the victorious revolutionary forces. Thus the RCA did have a string of congregations from Brockville, Ont. to York, Ont., as Toronto was then called. These congregations eventually merged with a Presbyterian denomination because of lack of care by the denomination. Around 1900 Dutch immigrants in South Eastern Alberta also formed congregations under the RCA.

One of these continues to exist, the Monarch Reformed Church in Monarch, Alberta. Thus the above statement is technically incorrect. It compares the stronger presence after 1950 with that of 1800.

3. Namely where to go at the end of this ten year period. The Workshop in Hamilton, Ont. was a three day event in which two representatives of every worshipping group of immigrants in Canada met with the elected executive of the General Synod of the RCA and denominational staff. The full program of the RCA was presented, together with papers on the direction and the future of the Reformed congregations in Canada- An answer was sought to two questions: a. What is the Reformed Church in America, how does she operate, what does she see as her mission? b. What is the direction we as immigrant congregations in Canada should take? The door to remain with the RCA was always open. The president of the General Synod at that time, Dr. M. DeVelder, later reported to the Board of Domestic Missions, RCA, under which the Canadian work resided: "This was one of the great experiences of my life." ... 'I have never had such an emotional experience." ... "We are together and we must stay together." (For further information on this Workshop and contents of the various presentations see Pioneer Christian Monthly May 16, 1959. The previous comments are reported on p. 27 of that issue.)

4. With two votes against.

5. A reference to Dr. Justin VanderKolk's sermon preached at the Workshop in 1959, the text being taken from Psalm 137:4. The late Dr. VanderKolk was at that time president of the Board of Domestic Missions, which is presently part of the Program Council of the denomination was the term with which Rev. Clark described himself and those, who with him came from the United Church.

7. This is a reference to the presentation by Dr. Daniel Meeter at this Conference. The Constitution of the RCA consists of the Confessional Standards --our doctrine--the Book of Liturgy, and the Government of the RCA. Those are her three legs. Dr. Meeter suggested that these three form a triangle and that each leg is braced: Our doctrine is the basis of the triangle, braced by the preaching of the Word, this brace resting where the Government and Liturgy sides meet. The Liturgy side is braced by the Sacraments, this brace resting where Doctrine and Government meet. The Government side is braced by Discipline which brace finds its resting place where Doctrine and Liturgy meet.

8. Last stanza of the hymn -'0 Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go' by George Matheson.

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