Last year, I set out to explain why I believe that the denominational office’s interpretation of confessional-difficulty gravamina is not only incorrect, but also immoral and likely to prove damaging to the CRC’s confessional integrity. Some of the arguments that I used in those articles were included in an overture that my council sent to Classis Grandville. In January, Classis Grandville adopted my council’s overture and has sent it on to Synod 2023.
Interestingly, on the same day that Classis Grandville met to discuss my council’s overture, the denominational offices decided to publish what would eventually become the first of two articles by Prof. Kathy Smith (Professor of Church Order at Calvin Theological Seminary) on the topic of confessional-difficulty gravamina. In her first article, entitled, “Gravamen: What It Is and How to Use It,” Prof. Smith reaffirms her commitment to the denominational office’s interpretation of confessional-difficulty gravamina and attempts to justify that interpretation by appealing to CRC church history. Highlighting the importance of these historical claims to her argument, the denominational offices published a second article by Prof. Smith a few days later, entitled, “Summary of the History behind the Guidelines for Gravamina.”
A More Accurate History: An Introduction
This is a new series from Rev. Cedric Parsels covering the history of gravamina in the Christian Reformed Church. Last year, I set out to explain why I believe that the denominational office’s interpretation of confessional-difficulty gravamina is not only
Part I - Confessional Subscription
This is a new series from Rev. Cedric Parsels covering the history of gravamina in the Christian Reformed Church. From its beginning, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has practiced a strict form of confessional subscription. Unlike our brothers and sisters in the Presbyterian churches, we have never allowed our officebearers to take exception t…
Part II - The Kromminga Case (1945-1947)
This is a new series from Rev. Cedric Parsels covering the history of gravamina in the Christian Reformed Church. According to Prof. Smith, the first case (that we know of) involving a ‘confessional-difficulty gravamen’ was that of Prof. D.H. Kromminga. Prof. Kromminga was Professor of Church History at Calvin Theological Seminary from 1928 until his dea…
Part III - The 1950’s and 1960’s
This is a new series from Rev. Cedric Parsels covering the history of gravamina in the Christian Reformed Church. In Part II of this series, we saw that Prof. Smith’s account of the history of confessional-difficulty gravamina in our church was inaccurate. Prof. Kromminga’s 1945 ‘gravamen’ was not what the denominational offices would like us to refer to…
Part IV - The Boer Case (1975-1977)
This is a new series from Rev. Cedric Parsels covering the history of gravamina in the Christian Reformed Church. In Part III, we saw that, throughout the 1950s and 60s, the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) official policy with regard to confessional subscription was the same as it had always been: ministers, elders, and deacons, as well as profe…
Part V – Is the Boer Case Unique?
This is a new series from Rev. Cedric Parsels covering the history of gravamina in the Christian Reformed Church. Most people intuitively recognize that getting married is serious business. It’s serious, because it is risky. And its risky, because when someone gets married they don’t know how their circumstances or the circumstances of their spouse are g…
Part VI – A Time To Confess
This is a new series from Rev. Cedric Parsels covering the history of gravamina in the Christian Reformed Church. In this series of articles, I have sought to lay out a more accurate history of the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) approach to gravamina. Contrary to Prof. Smith’s claims, the CRC’s official policy from 1857 to 1976 was that our officebear…
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