>Only five days until my daughter's wedding! Lots of things scheduled this week, which I plan to enjoy.And I signed up this morning for another crazy November of NaNoWriMo!

>I promised myself I would never do this, but one should never say never.I haven't found the time to blog lately because I've been busy. We are knee deep in wedding plans for one of our daughters, and I've been investing time in new work opportunities. I've also been doing some blogging for my family … Continue reading >On being busy…

>My devotions this morning from Ligonier Ministries "Tabletalk" remind me of that beautiful Hebrew word: chesed.Chesed is the concise word communicating the copious concept of God's covenant love and faithfulness. Today's devotions used it to describe how God continued to be with Joseph in prison following the false accusations of Potiphar's wife.It's almost impossible to … Continue reading >Chesed

>Regular readers will recall my earlier assignment to write a pantoum. A pantoum is a formal poem of quatrain stanzas that repeats the second and fourth lines of each stanza in the first and third lines of the next. The concluding quatrain contains the first and third lines of the first stanza as its second … Continue reading >Sojourner

> Rev. Ralph Pontier, who served Synod as Vice Chair, and Rev. Peter Kloosterman (RCNZ) (Photo Credit: Glenda Mathes)It's been more than two weeks since I returned from Synod, and it's time to wrap up this series of reports. This post will finish federative unity issues with the remaining CERCU-related matters, then move into ecumenical … Continue reading >Synod: Wrap Up

>In addition to the five previous posts dealing with federative unity, Synod adopted some Church Order changes that clarify the ratification process. But, among all the actions Synod took to clarify and slow the unification process, it took sudden action when it invited the Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches (OCRC) to join with the URCNA in … Continue reading >Synod: Church Order Changes & OCRC

>Another federative unity issue that relates to the merger with the CanRC was revision to CERCU's guidelines. Overtures 3 & 15 requested the removal of the phrase "and in preparation for and commitment to eventual integrated federative church unity" from the Phase 2 definition. Each overture also suggested dividing Phase 3 into specific steps.Advisory Committee … Continue reading >Synod: CERCU Guidelines

>As noted in my previous post, the third of the URCNA "unity" committees had reported to Synod that its work with the Canadian Reformed committee was "at an impasse."The impasse was due to disagreement over whether a federationally-controlled seminary is biblically mandated. The CanRC committee had entered discussions with a synodical mandate that it was. … Continue reading >Synod: Theological Education

>My previous post detailed some of the lively debate on the floor of Synod Schererville 2007 concerning the songbook. But in addition to the Songbook Committee, the URCNA has two other "unity" committees working with their Canadian Reformed counterparts: the Joint Church Order Committee and the Theological Education Committee.The Joint Church Order Committee has made … Continue reading >Synod: Joint Church Order

>Media moguls at Synod: John Van Dyk, editor, and Glenda Mathes with Christian Renewal; Rev. Wybren Oord, editor of the Outlook (Photo and information credit: Glenda Mathes and Christian Renewal)Some of the liveliest debate on the floor of Synod Schererville 2007 concerned the development of a songbook.Even the possible appointment of another person to the … Continue reading >Synod: Songbook