If last year’s General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church was a Thornwellian Revolution (and it was, and the spirit of it continued this year as more beauracracy was cleaned out) probably the best way to describe our meeting the past few days is:
Wait Until Next Year
As most of you know my role for the Synod is to serve as our Bill Clerk. That office is a hold over from decades past when communication was slow and more paper shuffling was needed. Now I mostly assist the Principal Clerk in keeping track of motions from the floor, the success/failure of recommendations from committee reports, and to notify the Moderator when there remains no more business on the table. Mostly though I sit behind the Reading Clerk and keep him company. :)
This year’s General Synod will probably be most remembered for our return to Bonclarken after a four-year absence. In 2019 we had a concurrent Synod with our RPCNA brethren in Pittsburgh (Beaver Falls more specifically, and at Geneva College even more so). Due to the lockdowns of Comrade Cooper we were forced to meet both in 2020 and 2021 at 1st Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina. It was a blessing to be up North in June, and we were fed excellently in the Capital. However, Bonclarken is home. Will always be home, and is the place where we belong. There were threats of thunderstorms, but outside the downpour during the afternoon preaching (sorry Rev. Drew Goodman) it was mostly dry for the week.
On that front the sermons were excellent, I want to especially give thanks to Rev. Howard Wheeler for his exquisite exposition of Luke 21:7-19. You can always tell when the minister has your attention because you don’t pay any mind to the time. I was personally moved and blessed by it. We also this year had presentations from missionaries and church planters that followed the preaching. Also as is the usual the Psalm singing this year (and hymns) was robust and great in power. Click the link for our closing vocals. There is something wonderful about hearing men giving their all to praise the Lord Jesus! The food was good as well.
Now, we’ll get into the stuff y’all who read this actually want to know about.
What business was done.
….well….not much.
As noted above the theme of this year’s Synod may have been “advancing the gospel”, but it certainly was not “receive completed reports from special committees”. We heard the reading clerk say something similar to “..the special committee on [insert name here] has requested another year” about six times. Restructuring, Deaconesses, Presbytery Bounds, Freemasonry, et al are all coming in 2023.
We better schedule Synod for the whole week of June 5-9 next year.
Outside of that there were a couple disappointing moments. First was the move not to at least consider the Memorial (our version of an overture PCA folks) from Tennessee-Alabama Presbytery on the use of wine in the Lord’s Supper at Synod. Now, I am not the world’s biggest fan of having Communion at all at Synod, not sure it belongs in a court/business meeting, and am also aware that it would have undoubtedly been referred to a special committee for study, but I do wish that it would have had the chance to be referred. Personally, I hope they bring it back next year.
The second was the woeful discussion over women in worship, and who can authoritatively read the word of God in the worship of the Church. Strawmen about random bible verses referenced in a missions report abounded. We even had some Quakerism break out. Hopefully a lot of our Synod does some remedial reading on the doctrine of ordination and the Larger Catechism this next year.
But, we continued to get good news on the retirement front. The deficit is almost completely gone and the SCONAR mess is almost behind us. Be in continued prayer. More good news on the further solidifying of the Biblical reformation at Erskine College was received with gladness. Go Flying Fleet!
All in all Synod is never bad, because the ARP is the ARP and I’d rather be in a space capsule with Joy Behar than not be ARP. Plus the Flat Rock Bakery just hits.
Y’all be blessed.
By His Strength,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser