Racism in Reformed Church Order?

The Reformed Church Center Explores Racism in Our Polity

 In its report to the 2023 General Synod, the RCA’s African American Black Council (AABC) claimed that the Book of Church Order (BCO) was “(a) racial, ethnic, and cultural tool of exclusion.”[1] This shocked some readers, who needed to step back and see how they, as white people who often grew up with Reformed polity, wouldn’t recognize that was going on.

 The AABC statement and the General Synod Council response are just the beginning of a longer conversation in the church. In order to help that conversation along, and to help folks who weren’t at the last General Synod, the Reformed Church Center is hosting “Racism in Reformed Church Order?” on Zoom on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, from 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm Eastern Time.

Earl James, retired Coordinator for the African America/Black Council of the Reformed Church in America as well as retired Coordinator for Advocacy in the RCA, currently serves as vice president of the AABC. In this work, he has assisted RCA African American congregations and people, and others as well, find and walk pathways to living more fully into the Biblical vision of shalom and the human hope of the beloved community.  His previous denominational roles involved increasing cultural agility, multiracial initiatives, and justice. He has brought his experience and his study of RCA polity to bear in helping to identify places where the church order is inherently racist and discuss what we can do about it.

Matthew van Maastricht, pastor of the Altamont and Helderberg, NY, Reformed Churches and adjunct instructor in RCA Studies at NBTS, is also a doctoral candidate studying Reformed polity at the Theologische Universiteit Utrecht and a founding leader of the Society for Protestant Church Polity. In his spare time, he serves as General Editor for the Congregational History Series of The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America. He will respond to Earl James’s concerns and observations with an eye toward paths where we might make the order stronger and more just for a multiracial, multicultural church while continuing to be true to its Reformed roots.

After Matthew and Earl have laid out the case, we will open the discussion to everyone as we dream together about what might be possible and help one another see the situation with different eyes.

[1] Minutes of General Synod, 2023, 58.