NR #1995-094: Iakota Rejects Interclassical Conference The flat farmland of Classis Iakota may not bear much physical resemblance to the mountain-rimmed valleys of Classis California South, but the two classes have at least one thing in common: a president who used his prerogatives to rule the upcoming Interclassical Conference of Christian Reformed conservatives out of order prior to discussion of its merits. NR #1995-094: For Immediate Release Iakota Rejects Interclassical Conference by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service ROCK VALLEY, Iowa (September 19, 1995) URNS - The flat farmland of Classis Iakota may not bear much physical resemblance to the mountain-rimmed valleys of Classis California South, but the two classes have at least one thing in common: a president who used his prerogatives to rule the upcoming Interclassical Conference of Christian Reformed conservatives out of order prior to discussion of its merits. At the September 19 regular session of Classis Iakota, 23 churches in Iowa and South Dakota were asked by two of the leading conservative churches in the classis, First CRC and Calvin CRC of Rock Valley, Iowa, to accept Classis California South's invitation to send delegates to an early November meeting which will plan an organized response to Synod 1995's decision to allow women in office and maintain ties with its Dutch mother church despite its toleration of homosexual practice. While a large number of individual churches have already made plans to attend the Interclassical Conference, the invitation was issued too late for the agenda deadline in most classes. As a result, Classis Iakota became only the second classis to consider sending official delegates. While the two requests were slightly different - First CRC asked Classis Iakota to send its four delegates from Synod 1995 and Calvin CRC asked to send two or more unspecified delegates - both sought the same objective of having Classis Iakota officially represented at the Interclassical Conference. For that reason, classis president Rev. Clifford Hoekstra cited identical grounds in ruling both out of order. Hoekstra began his ruling by reading a citation from the Manual of Christian Reformed Church Government commenting on Church Order Article 44 - a reference which nowhere appears in the California South invitation and was deleted by the originating church before it was ever considered by the classis. "This does not seem in my judgment to meet the requirements of Article 44, so I'm going to rule it out of order," declared Hoekstra. Calvin CRC pastor Rev. Roger Sparks immediately appealed Hoekstra's ruling. "I think it's appropriate for us to accept this invitation," said Sparks, noting that Article 44 applied only to formal ecclesiastical assemblies and not to conferences of the sort proposed by Classis California South. "Anything that is discussed and decided at the Interclassical Conference would be discussed and decided through the ordinary process of the church order," continued Sparks. Due to an arcane procedural rule of Classis Iakota, delegates had no opportunity for further discussion. While Robert's Rules of Order and ordinary parliamentary procedure specify that an appeal from a decision of the chair is debatable in most cases where the original question on which the chair ruled is itself debatable, Classis Iakota's rules specify that when a ruling of the chair is challenges, "classis shall immediately sustain or reject the ruling by majority vote." The result was that after only two brief speeches, classis voted by a 22 to 14 margin not to consider the overtures without ever discussing their merits. Classis then took up a note on the credentials of Bethlehem CRC in Freeman, South Dakota. While not calling for specific action, Bethlehem CRC declared that it "wishes to instruct Classis Iakota that it takes issue with the decisions carried by Synod 1995 regarding 'Women in Office' and 'Relations with the Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands' (GKN)." Clearly frustrated by lack of debate on the previous items, Bethlehem CRC pastor Rev. Fritz Harms compared synod to a "paper tiger" and warned that procedural rules could not be allowed to prevent classis from dealing with the issues of women in office and homosexuality. "I want this body to come to grips with the decisions that were made at the Christian Reformed synod this past year," said Harms. "If you want true unity in the CRC this is the time to act. To not act is to be irresponsible." However, Rev. Jelmer Groenewald of Trinity CRC in Rock Valley warned that the classis decision should not be viewed as supporting gay marriages or women in office. "I would caution us against making a judgment on the classis based on the vote of this classis," said Groenewald. "This classis has been on record. When Synod has done what it did last summer, there will be response." Dr. Warren Lammers of Platte (SD) CRC echoed Groenewald's concern about misinterpretation but cautioned that the process of rejecting the Interclassical Conference proposals had not been done wisely. "I'm afraid that we may have called up a vote too quickly and didn't give us the chance to air out some things that need to be aired out on the level of classis," said Lammers. "I think Classis Iakota is operating today as if it is in shell-shock. We don't want to do something radical, but we know we can't have it both ways." Unable to act in the absence of a specific request, classis finally voted to simply receive the Bethlehem CRC item for information. Both First CRC and Calvin CRC say they will now take the matter back to their councils and seriously consider sending delegates to the Interclassical Conference on their own. That doesn't mean the churches are happy, though. "I sincerely wish we had been able to debate the merits of the overture rather than immediately having to vote to sustain the decision of the chair which in our classis is undebatable," said Sparks. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1995-093: California South Announces Date and Location for Interclassical Conference of Christian Reformed Conservatives [See related article list at crossreferences] Contact List: Rev. C. Eric Fennema, Pastor, First Christian Reformed Church 1323 - 16th St., Rock Valley, IA 51247 * H: (712) 476-2763 * O: (712) 476-5902 Rev. Jelmer Groenewold, Pastor, Trinity Christian Reformed Church 808 - 21st Ave., Rock Valley, IA 51247 * O: (712) 476-5232 * O: (712) 476-2729 Rev. Frederik Harms, Pastor, Bethlehem Christian Reformed Church PO Box 519, Freeman, SD 57029 * H/O: (605) 925-7642 Rev. Clifford Hoekstra, Pastor, Faith Christian Reformed Church 1440 - 2nd Ave. SE, Sioux Center, IA 51250-1110 * O: (712) 722-1110 * H: (712) 722-4433 Dr. Warren Lammers, Pastor, Platte Christian Reformed Church 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Platte, SD 57369 * H: (605) 337-3859 * O: (605) 337-3572 Rev. Roger Sparks, Calvin Christian Reformed Church 1606 - 18th St., Rock Valley, IA 51247 * O: (712) 476-5782 * H: (712) 476-2468 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr95-094.txt .