Above: My Copies of The Hymnbook (1955), The Liturgy and Psalms (1968), and Psalter Hymnal (1959)
Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
U.S. DUTCH REFORMED LITURGY, PART V
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hope of the world, Thou Christ of great compassion,
Speak to our fearful hearts by conflict rent.
Save us, Thy people, from consuming passion,
Who by our falsehoods and aims are spent.
–Georgia Harkness, 1953, The Hymnbook (1955), Hymn #291
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I. PREFACE AND INTRODUCTION
In the early 1980s, hardly the pinnacle of humor on Saturday Night Live, some good jokes did slip through the filters. Among them was this piece of faux wisdom:
Change is the only constant. Then you need it for bus fare.
Change was among the constant factors in the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA or just CRC) during the period of 1945-1969. The RCA almost came apart at the seams because of the resulting tensions and resentments. And the CRCNA moderated, much to the chagrin of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), with which it nearly merged. By the end of 1969 the gap separating the RCA and the CRCNA had narrowed.
The process of taking notes for this post required me to spend much time with books and PDFs. I have listed my hardcopy sources at the end of this post. For the sake of convenience, however, I state here and now that the germane Agendas and Acts of Synod of the CRCNA are available at this link. I have also provided other germane hyperlinks throughout the post as forms of documentation.
Before we continue, O reader, I inform you that the rough draft of this post, excluding the bibliography, filled sixty-eight pages of a composition book. I have tried to be thorough without being excessive. There is simply much material, despite the fact that I could have written many more pages. So you might want to review Parts I, II, III, and IV of this series and take your time with this post. The organizational structure should guide you through the material well.
I am, believe it or not, working on this series as part of a hobby. I could be watching old Doctor Who serials, but I am doing this instead. Make of that what you will.
Now, without further ado….
II. ECUMENISM, BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION, AND BIBLE TRANSLATION
Liturgy does not occur in a vacuum. To understand it properly one must have a grasp of its contexts. The Hymnbook (1955), for example, was a joint project of the RCA and four Presbyterian denominations. Thus that volume’s existence indicates something about the RCA’s ecumenical engagement at the time. And the choice of Bible translation (the American Standard Version of 1901) for use in Psalter Hymnal (1959) points to the CRCNA’s official attitude toward the Revised Standard Version at the time. So, before I undertake to explain details of liturgy in the RCA and the CRCNA from 1945 to 1969, I will lay a solid foundation.
Biblical Inerrancy and Infallibility
This issue arose in both the RCA and the CRCNA, with different results.
Before we proceed, O reader, we ought to understand definitions correctly. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition (1996), defines “inerrant” and “infallible” as synonyms. They refer to being incapable of erring and to containing no errors.
The RCA had a contingent (mostly in the Midwest and the West) which valued inerrancy and infallibility. The issue did not come before the General Synod until 1948, however. In 1946 New Brunswick Theological Seminary hired Hugh Baillie MacLean, a Scottish Presbyterian, as Lecturer in Old Testament. MacLean addressed the General Synod of 1948, causing a controversy in the process. He affirmed the value of the Old Testament, arguing that the New Testament had not made it irrelevant. That did not prove controversial, but the next part did. He also stated that the Bible was a product of God and people, and that changing human understandings of God had influenced the development Scripture. So, MacLean said, God never ordered the Israelites to commit genocide in Canaan, despite appearances in the Bible. Actually, he argued, later writers told the story that way because they concluded that the Israelites should have killed all the Canaanites.
Had MacLean denied the truth of Scripture? The General Synod of 1949 heard seventeen overtures (all from the generally more liberal East of the Church) supporting MacLean and thirteen overtures (all of them from the generally more conservative Midwest and West of the denomination) condemning him. The scholar remained at his post until he died in 1959. During his tenure he impressed his students with his knowledge, his ability to make the Bible come alive, and his commitment to divine love for people and for justice.
Among MacLean’s students was William Coventry, who became the center of a dispute in the RCA. From May 1958 to January 1959 he struggled to receive a license to preach. The conservative Classis of Passaic, where many of the ministers had graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary, an institution of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), denied Coventry said license in May 1958 because he had denied Biblical inerrancy and infallibility and argued that Adam had never existed. Next four congregations of that classis appealed the decision to the Particular Synod of New Jersey, which sustained the appeal. Yet the Classis of Passaic continued to refuse to grant the license to Coventry, not yet ordained. So some progressive congregations, complaining of the stifling conservatism of the Classis of Passaic, requested transfer to a different classis. The Classis of Passaic appealed the ruling of the Particular Synod of New Jersey to the General Synod of 1958, which directed the Particular Synod either to grant the license directly or to force the Classis of Passaic to do so. Meanwhile, Coventry had accepted a call to a congregation in the adjacent Classis of Paramus. That classis attempted to have him transferred to their jurisdiction so they could grant the license to preach. In January 1959, after consultation with clergy from both classes, an examiner asked Coventry specific questions regarding the interpretation of Scripture. Coventry provided more orthodox answers and thereby received his license to preach.
Subsequent General Synods addressed the question of Biblical interpretation. The 1959 General Synod ruled that the reality of a range of opinions regarding the proper interpretation of Scripture within the RCA and larger Protestantism did not constitute a cause for concern. Four years later the General Synod approved a 1960 Theological Commission report which said in part,
Scripture as the Word of the faithful God is infallible and inerrant in all that it intends to teach and accomplish concerning faith and life.
The RCA rejected any rigid position on the subject.
The CRCNA, however, approached the topic differently. This occurred in the context of a struggle between progressives (relatively speaking) and Confessionalists in the denomination. The progressives favored a policy of permeation, or applying Christian faith in the modern culture, not hiding out from it. They scored a victory in 1952, when all but one member of the Confessionalist old guard at Calvin Theological Seminary had to leave. Nevertheless, these progressives were theological conservatives; they were just less conservative than the Confessionalists. Affirmation of Biblical inerrancy and infallibility remained an assumed matter at Calvin Theological Seminary as late as 1959. That year the CRCNA Synod received an overture that
no seminary student who is not wholly committed to the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture shall have access to any pulpit in the Christian Reformed Church
and deemed it
unnecessary at this time,
due to the orthodoxy of Calvin Theological Seminary.
Starting in 1959, however, there was an investigation of the Reverend Doctor John H. Kromminga, President of that seminary from 1954. Professor Martin J. Wyngaarden, also of the seminary, alleged that Kromminga had, in writing, taken a position on Biblical inerrancy and infallibility inconsistent with the Belgic Confession of Faith. The CRCNA Synod exonerated Kromminga of all charges, over Wyngaarden’s strong and vocal objections. Kromminga, the Synod concluded, had merely used vague language initially; he had cleared up all misunderstandings with precise language. He received indefinite tenure in 1962 and retired twenty-one years later.
The CRCNA reaffirmed its position regarding Biblical inerrancy and infallibility in 1961. One can read the full text of that position in that year’s Acts of Synod, pages 253-328. The General Synod of the RCA would never have approved such a hardline position.
The World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism
The RCA had been a charter member of the Federal Council of Churches (1908-1950). It maintained this affiliation through 1950, turning back overtures to leave in 1932, 1934, 1936, 1944, 1947, and 1948. Objections to membership in the Federal Council included allegations that:
- The Council was Communist;
- The Council, if not Communist, was soft on Communism;
- The Council was too liberal; and
- Membership in the Council weakened the Reformed witness of the RCA.
The RCA also became a charter member of the World Council of Churches (1948-) and the National Council of Churches (1950-), the latter being the successor to the Federal Council. Criticisms of RCA membership in the Federal Council became arguments against membership in these new Councils. Within the right wing of the RCA other criticisms of them included:
- Charges of meddling in matters economic, political, and social; and
- Allegations that the Eastern Orthodox were not really Christians.
The General Synod turned back attempts to withdraw from the Councils in 1965, 1967, and 1968.
I will return to the first point periodically in this post, pointing out ironies regarding it. As for the second point, I conclude that traditional Protestant hostility toward Roman Catholicism is germane, for that antipathy transferred to the Eastern Orthodox.
An intellectually honest approach to the question of Protestant anti-Roman Catholicism recognizes the fact the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), or Vatican II, was a dividing line in church history and ecumenical relations. For many Protestants, however, Vatican II made no difference, for they remained hostile toward the Roman Catholic Church. This applied to the conservative middle of the RCA, but not just to that segment of the denomination. In 1960, for example, Norman Vincent Peale, pastor of Marble Collegiate Church, New York, New York, led a campaign against Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic nominee for President, on the basis of JFK’s Roman Catholicism alone.
Nevertheless, the generally more liberal Eastern portion of the RCA practiced more tolerance or acceptance of Roman Catholicism than did the generally more conservative Midwestern and Western parts of the denomination. Eastern RCA ministers usually wore a clergy collar, for example, but their Midwestern and Western counterparts seldom did. And, when two RCA clergymen attended an interfaith service at a Roman Catholic parish in Pequannock, New Jersey, in 1968, parts of the right wing of the RCA objected vociferously. There was also the 1963 case of an allegedly incriminating photograph of two RCA ministers, a Roman Catholic priest, and an Eastern Orthodox priest at an event during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. One conservative Midwestern RCA clergyman registered his displeasure in The Church Herald, the denominational magazine. He argued that the photograph suggested wrongly that the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches were Christian.
Old prejudices had stubborn staying power.
If this was the reaction in the RCA, how hard was the anti-Roman Catholic line in the CRCNA. Very! The 1949 Minority Report regarding CRCNA membership in the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) argued for continued affiliation with that group and included Roman Catholicism along with
Unbelief, Communism, Modernism
as
the great foes of orthodox Christianity
which both the CRCNA and the NAE opposed. And the 1957 Synod protested the appointment of a U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Acts of Synod cited concerns about the separation of church and state, but anti-Roman Catholicism was certainly a major factor in the matter. (Quotes from Acts of Synod, page 313)
The CRCNA was predictable in its opposition to the World and National Councils of Churches. A report to the 1959 Synod referred to members of those Councils as
“churches,”
as if they were really sects, not churches, and stated that these alleged churches denied
the orthodox faith and Scriptural teaching.
(Quotes from Acts of Synod, page 60)
The picture became mixed at the CRC Synod of 1967. The Majority Report (Acts of Synod, pages 380-443) recycled old criticisms of the World Council of Churches (WCC). It is too liberal, the report said. The WCC meddles in social, economic, and political issues, the report alleged. The Synod adopted this report. Yet there was the Minority Report (Acts of Synod, pages 444-485). The bottom line of the Minority Report was the recognition of problem areas regarding potential CRCNA membership in the WCC with a noticeable absence of hostility toward that Council. There were no charges of apostasy, for example. It was a minority opinion, but it had a constituency within the denomination.
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE)
The CRCNA joined the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), becoming a charter member. From then to 1951, when the denomination left, CRC Synods received overtures to withdraw. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the CRCNA heard requests to rejoin, something it did eventually, but not before 1970. The complaints against CRCNA membership in the NAE had nothing to do with charges of Modernism, for the NAE existed in part to resist Modernism. No, opposition to NAE affiliation within the CRCNA had mostly to do with Reformed identity and doctrinal purity. Arguments against the NAE gathered from the CRCNA Acts of Synod (1948-1951) included:
- Membership in the NAE impairs the CRCNA’s Reformed witness (that rhymes with objections to RCA membership in other councils);
- Membership in the NAE might “accelerate the growth of Fundamentalism in the Christian Reformed Church” (Acts of Synod, 1949, page 288); and
- The NAE is too Arminian.
The Majority Report to the Synod of 1949 advised CRCNA withdrawal from the NAE
lest our Reformed witness be confused, submerged, and impaired; and lest our fellowship in the N.A.E. accelerate the growth of Fundamentalism in the Christian Reformed Church
because
Fundamentalism is anti-Reformed and anti-Calvinist
and is
at best Arminian, but in fact anti-theological.
(Quotes from Acts of Synod, pages 288 and 290)
The unsuccessful pro-NAE argument was a defensive one. It held that the CRCNA must stand with the NAE because
the great foes of orthodox Christianity in our own day, Unbelief, Communism, Modernism, Roman Catholicism, are very strong and active today. We believe that as history rolls onto the end this danger will become more acute. This makes it all the more urgent that those who are fundamentally one in the Lord stand together to defend themselves.
(Quote from Acts of Synod, 1949, page 313)
A 1961 recommendation followed in the same vein, urging the CRCNA to rejoin the NAE to resist, among other influences,
Communism, Paganism, Roman Catholicism, and Modernism.
(Quote from Acts of Synod, page 476)
The CRCNA rejected NAE requests to send representatives to address denominational Synods and declined invitations to rejoin in the 1950s. By the middle 1960s, however, the CRCNA and the NAE had become partners in creating the New International Version of the Bible, a fact which unsettled part of the denominational constituency. And a 1967 NAE invitation to the CRCNA to return to the fold led to a study commission and a polite hearing, but not immediate re-affiliation. Attitudes were softening.
The Revised Standard Version and the New International Version
The Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible did not change substantially between 1954 and 1969, but the CRCNA’s official opinion of it did. Before the denomination approved of the RSV officially in 1969, however, it launched the process which led to the creation of the New International Version (NIV).
In the 1960s the RCA joined with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC), the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC), the Moravian Church in America (MCA), and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) to authorize common Sunday School materials, the Covenant Life Curriculum (CLC). Some of these volumes have entered my library. Thus I cite them to document the fact that they cited the RSV primarily. Some in the right wings of the RCA and the PCUS (at least) considered the CLC materials theologically suspect due to the presence of very mainline Protestant Neo-Orthodoxy in them. (I draw upon my memory of research into the reactionary wing of the PCUS via primary sources to support the PCUS part of the previous sentence.) The Hymnbook (1955) of the RCA, the ARPC, the PCUS, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA), and the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA) quoted both the Authorized (King James) Version and the RSV. The RCA clearly had no official objection to the RSV.
For fifteen years, however, the CRCNA had a different opinion. An overture to the Synod of 1953 led to the creation of a study committee. That group reported to the Synod of 1954 and lambasted the RSV. They labeled it inferior stylistically to the Authorized (King James) Version and worse, theologically Modernistic:
This bias does not appear on the side of faith.
(Quote from Acts of Synod, 1954, page 435)
The Synod accepted the report’s conclusions and advised against any use of the RSV in CRC congregations.
The RSV was a product of the National Council of Churches (NCC), which the CRCNA considered apostate at the time, so the translation’s origins influenced the Synod’s conclusions. The CRCNA, having mellowed by the late 1960s, appointed a new study commission in 1968 and approved the use of the RSV the following year. The denomination’s representatives on the matter even suggested some changes to the RSV ahead of the publication of the Revised Standard Version, Second Edition (RSV II), in 1971. At the time of the 1969 CRCNA Synod the RSV translation committee had agreed to give all these suggestions serious consideration, had approved some, and had rejected none. Engagement proved fruitful; labeling the translation faithless did not.
The RSV II, by the way, was the foundation from which the translators of the theologically conservative English Standard Version (2001) worked.
The process which led to the translation of the New International Version (NIV) began with an overture at the Synod of 1956. The proposal was that the CRCNA join with other conservative Churches to produce
a faithful translation of the Scriptures in the common language of the people.
The Synod of 1956 referred the matter to the Old Testament and New Testament faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary. By the early 1960s they had secured sufficient support, including much from the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The rest was history; translation began in 1965.
This work aroused opposition within the CRCNA. At the Synod of 1964, for example, Classis Central California made an eleventh-hour attempt to halt work on the NIV. It proposed an overture to this effect, providing the following reasons as grounds:
- The American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901 is good enough.
- Creating a new translation will be too expensive.
- Having too many translations complicates needlessly he process of memorizing Scripture.
- There is insufficient support within the CRCNA for a new translation.
That overture failed, but a subsequent overture from the same classis led to the approval of the RSV in 1969.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and the Christian Reformed Church in North America (1954-1961)
From 1955 to 1961 the CRCNA considered merging with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA). This proposal originated within the RPCNA, whose Synod of 1954 approved negotiations toward that end. The CRCNA Synod of 1955 responded favorably, so talks commenced. Major issues became obvious quickly and remain unresolved as the CRCNA stepped away from its traditional cultural isolationism, hence the failure of the merger negotiations:
- In 1956 the CRCNA Synod rejected a request from the RPCNA Synod to join it in supporting a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States recognizing Jesus Christ as “the Saviour and Ruler of Nations.” The CRCNA affirmed the sentiment yet deemed the proposed amendment improper.
- Reports to CRCNA Synods from the late 1950s to 1961 pointed to differences between the two denominations regarding the Scriptural pattern of worship. The RPCNA, unlike the CRCNA, rejected hymns, written prayers, and musical instruments. Indeed, it still rejects hymns. The RPCNA’s 2010 worship resource, The Book of Psalms for Worship, is exactly what the title indicates.
- These CRCNA reports to Synod also mentioned a different ethic regarding the Christian’s proper relationship to civil authority. The RPCNA considered voting and holding public office sinful.
A 1959 CRCNA report labeled merger unlikely, a 1960 report held out some hope, and a 1961 report, citing
some traditional positions and practices
of the RPCNA, declared merger an impossibility.
(Quote from Acts of Synod, 1961, page 121)
The Orthodox Protestant Reformed Churches in America and the Christian Reformed Church in North America, 1957-1961
The Protestant Reformed Churches in America (PRCA) broke away from the CRCNA in 1926 rather than affirm the Common Grace theology of Abraham Kuyper which the CRCNA Synod had made mandatory for ministers. (I covered that ground in Parts III and IV of this series. I have also provided links to all the previous parts of this series at the beginning of this post.) The CRCNA was Calvinistic, but the PRCA was hyper-Calvinistic. The PRCA split in 1953, when the Orthodox Protestant Reformed Churches in America (OPRCA) formed.
I use these labels for the sake of accuracy, but the CRC Acts of Synod usually referred to the PRCA as the PRCA (H. Hoekstra Group) and the OPRCA as the PRCA (De Wolf Group). So, O reader, know that fact if you decide to read the Acts of Synod for details relevant to these groups.
The main purpose of the OPRCA (1953-1961) seems to have been to reunite with the CRCNA. In fact, some congregations did this before the denomination followed suit in 1961, four years after talks started. This rush back into the embrace of the CRCNA displeased the PRCA, which spewed ecclesiastical venom at its parent denomination. A testy communication from the PRCA to the CRCNA in 1957 prompted this restrained and accurate summary in a report to CRCNA Synod:
The tone and contents of the letter are not as give promise of fruitful discussion.
(Quote from Acts of Synod, page 83)
Union between the OPRCA and the CRCNA became effective on July 13, 1961. A letter from the PRCA to the OPRCA dated July 12, 1961, addressed the
Erring Brethren
and warned them to
desist from the evil path
they had followed since 1953. (Quotes from Acts of Synod, 1962, page 461). Then the PRCA picked a fight with the CRCNA over the records (before the schism of 1953) of churches, formerly PRCA but then OPRCA and later CRCNA. The CRCNA resolved the matter by sending copies of all such records to the PRCA.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Christian Reformed Church in North America, 1959-1969
J. Gresham Machen, late of Princeton Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA), formed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), initially named the Presbyterian Church of America, in 1936. (Note the “of America,” reader. The Presbyterian Church in America, founded in 1973 as the National Presbyterian Church, produced a hymn book, Trinity Hymnal–Revised Edition (1990), with the OPC, after two failed attempts at organic union with that body in the 1980s. I also ponder how difficult naming a new Presbyterian denomination in the United States must be, for sounding much like another label is probably impossible. Fortunately, I can keep the denominational names separate most of the time.) Machen was a theologically complex man–not even hostile to Evolution–but he died on January 1, 1937, and a power struggle divided his nascent denomination five months later. Thus the Bible Presbyterian Church came into existence.
The OPC and the CRCNA began their ecclesiastical dance in 1944. The two started preparing joint Sunday School materials in the early 1950s. The CRCNA Synod of 1959 sought merger with the OPC, which seemed likely for a few years. Negotiators in the early 1960s considered only one issue–polity–a possible barrier to organic union. They did not think of it as an insurmountable barrier, however. The crux of this issue was that the OPC General Assembly was less prone than the CRCNA Synod to bind church members with pronouncements. The CRCNA had stricter rules about liturgy, for example.
In 1966 the OPC backed away from potential organic union with the CRCNA. At first the OPC cited some of its internal issues, such as the process of adopting a new Form of Government and the pursuit of merger negotiations with the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod (RPCES). (The RPCES became part of the Presbyterian Church in America in 1982 instead.) Actually, the OPC was more concerned with perceived liberal tendencies in the CRCNA. This had nothing to do with Synodical decisions, for the CRCNA had maintained a hard line regarding Biblical inerrancy and infallibility, for example. But the Synod had not made a definite statement about Evolution (something which Machen would not have asked them to do, by the way). And a prominent CRCNA minister had sounded rather Arminian regarding the Atonement recently. Furthermore, no matter how often the CRCNA called the World Council of Churches too liberal, the OPC remained unsatisfied. No number of CRCNA assurances from 1967 to 1969 sufficed. The CRCNA was insufficiently orthodox for the OPC.
The United Presbyterian Church of North America and the Reformed Church in America
There was a 1944-1949 proposal to merge the RCA and the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). This was not the first overlap between the UPCNA and a Dutch Reformed denomination. As I have established previously in this series:
- The UPCNA had discussed merger with the CRCNA in the 1890s,
- The CRCNA’s Classis Hackensack had used and adapted the UPCNA’s Psalter (1887),
- The UPCNA’s Psalter (1912) served as the basis of the CRCNA’s Psalter (1914), and
- The UPCNA and the RCA had discussed merger in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
The United Presbyterians and the Dutch Reformed were hardly strangers to each other, but the proposed merger in the 1940s failed. The UPCNA passed it, as did the RCA General Assembly of 1949, yet not enough RCA Classes approved it by sufficiently wide margins. Supporters of organic union had made their case:
- The two denominations were similar, therefore compatible;
- The RCA would become part of a larger and more prominent denomination;
- The merged body would enjoy better name recognition, for many people knew the name “Presbyterian” better than “Reformed;” and
- The merger would decrease Christian divisiveness.
Yet the proposed merger died because Midwestern and Western Classes of the RCA killed it in the name of maintaining Dutch identity, doctrinal orthodoxy, and liturgical similarity.
The UPCNA found its merger partner, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA). They joined in 1958 to create the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA).
The Presbyterian Church in the United States and the Reformed Church in America, 1962-1969
The Eastern portion of the RCA, always more supportive of organic union with others than the Midwestern and Western sections thereof, tried again in the 1960s. Potential suitors included the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the United Church of Christ, but the RCA leaders decided to try to merge with the Southern Presbyterians, the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), instead. This proposal stirred up strong opposition within the right wings of both denominations, but the RCA’s right flank succeeded in preventing the merger. RCA critics stated their reasons:
- The PCUS was insufficiently Reformed;
- The PCUS belonged to the Consultation on Church Union (COCU); and
- The PCUS was too liberal.
The 1969 death of the RCA-PCUS merger and the years-long debate leading up to it stirred up much resentment within the RCA. Other issues contributed to the infighting in the RCA, but the proposed merger functioned as a major lightning rod. Many progressives thought that conservatives had taken their denomination away from them. Many conservatives wondered, however, how progressives had become so radicalized. The RCA might have come part at the seams in the early 1970s had the General Synod of 1970 not decentralized much of the decision making in the denomination, thereby relieving the General Synod of the responsibility of issuing so many statements.
The PCUS merged with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) in 1983 to create the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) [PC(USA)].
III. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PIETY
Perhaps the proposed RCA-PCUS merger served primarily to crystallize a host of issues which divided the wings of the RCA. These existed mainly in the realm of public and private piety. The CRCNA dealt with the same issues also.
Racism and Civil Rights
The Dutch Reformed, whether theologically relatively liberal or conservative, were all over the proverbial map regarding how best to address questions of civil rights. There were many overt racists in the pews, of course, as there were in the larger society. These defended segregation with a host of reasons, including white privilege, the assumption that God had separated the races, and concerns for property values. Among those who opposed racism disagreement about how best to correct the situation divided the ranks. Those who focused on individual responsibility thought that a sufficient number of people repenting of the sin of racism was enough to solve the problem. Others, however, added to that the moral imperative of the church to address social, economic, and political structures. This was the kind of “meddling” for which many people criticized the World and National Councils of Churches.
The RCA’s Christian Action Committee (CAC) favored actions which upset both racists and solely individual-responsibility types opponents of racism. The CAC, backed up by the General Synod of 1957, made the following statements:
- It encouraged the RCA to confess its racism and related sins.
- It noted the lack of Biblical support for opposing interracial marriage.
- It opposed racially restrictive housing covenants.
The second and third points proved especially controversial. Concern over property values was a financial consideration, of course. Sometimes it was more than that, obviously. But few issues have demonstrated the power to stir up deep emotions in people more strongly than human sexuality. What consenting adults do with each other has proven to be a cause of much moral concern–frequently with good cause–but who may marry whom has often functioned as an issue which has focused bigoted opinions people have learned from others. Cultures have long imparted prejudices to their members. Such was (and remains) the case with opposition to interracial marriage.
The RCA was of a divided mind on civil rights. The 1960 General Synod even refused to support the National Urban League (NAL) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for fear they might be Communist organizations. And in 1969, the General Synod declined to request the U.S. Congress to improve working conditions for farm workers, especially migrants who picked grapes in California. Was Cesar Chavez a radical? Perhaps, but he was definitely a Roman Catholic committed to economic justice.
Both the RCA and the CRCNA addressed questions of Apartheid in South Africa. Each denomination related more naturally to a different Dutch Reformed body in that country, the RCA with the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (DRCSA) (albeit uncomfortably) and the CRCNA with the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA). The CRCNA Synod of 1960 approved an overture to ask said Synod to send a letter to the RCSA, which had not taken a position regarding Apartheid. The CRCNA letter reminded the RCSA gently of its Christian duty
to avoid any semblance of an attitude leading to estrangement between races.
The RCA, in a 1968 letter to the DRCSA, which used the Bible to defend Apartheid, condemned that misuse (if not abuse) of Scripture. These were laudable letters, but the CRCNA’s communication raised the question of hypocrisy, for that denomination, while condemning Apartheid and encouraging its sister church to oppose that official system, accused the World and National Councils of Churches of meddling in social, economic, and political matters. Did the CRCNA want to have it both ways? And, assuming that there was (and is) a distinction between theological issues on one hand and social, economic, and political matters on the other hand, where was (and is) it?
The CRCNA also struggled with that theological-social, economic, and political distinction regarding domestic civil rights. In 1957 Classis Hackensack sent to the Synod an overture emphasizing human solidarity and quoting the Bible to declare that determining
the opportunities in society on the basis of race and color is contrary to the will of God.
The grounds for the overture were telling. Verbatim:
- The problem of race segregation is not confined to a single congregation or classis, but it is an issue on which many congregations in many places have need of guidance.
- The material provides guidance on a vital issue involving the Christian conscience in a matter with direct and immediate bearing upon the life of the church.
- This material also provides a witness from the Word of God to a world on a vital issue which has been disturbing the conscience of our society for many years.
- It is the duty of the church to address itself to such issues as this with courage and conviction, clarity, and constancy from the Word of God.
The Synod removed the last two grounds and passed the overture.
Just two years later, however, the Synod adopted a statement which emphasized (1) human solidarity, (2) love for one’s neighbors, (3) church responsibility to scrutinize its teachings and attitudes as well as civil laws in the light of Scripture, (4) avoiding even the impression of racial discrimination in the church, and (5) rebutting the argument that the Bible contains any evidence for or against interracial marriage. The grounds for the overture included:
In view of the racial tensions and the flagrant violation of the Scriptural principle of equality occurring in society and church, both in America and in the world, the church has a calling to register a clear and strong witness to her members and her world.
(Quote from Acts of Synod, 1959, page 84)
The CRCNA addressed racism at home in 1968 and 1969. The Synod of 1968 approved in full an overture which included condemnation of a racial segregation at a CRCNA parochial school. That Synod also designated July 14, 1968, as a day of prayer and fasting for the sins of racism so that God might renew U.S. society. And the Synod of 1969 approved an overture which stated that churches had a responsibility to address, social, economic, and political issues related to racism.
War and Peace: Vietnam
The Vietnam War divided U.S. society and became controversial in ecclesiastical circles, including within the RCA and the CRCNA.
The relatively liberal establishment of the RCA represented a diminishing power base in the East, for numerical and financial strength was growing in the Midwest and the West, where congregations tended to be more conservative and where many communities were less diverse and cosmopolitan than in the East. The accompanying shift in ecclesiastical power became obvious in the 1960s. Although the General Synod had questioned the morality of the draft and affirmed the principle of conscientious objection to war and military service earlier in the decade, the 1969 General Synod rejected a proposal to provide legal counsel to draft dodgers. Part of Richard Nixon‘s “Silent Majority” was vocal within the RCA.
My research yielded little information about the CRCNA and the Vietnam War per se. Nevertheless, I did notice that the Synod of 1969 reprinted verbatim the text of the denomination’s 1939 Testimony Regarding the Christian’s Attitude Toward War on pages 447-493 of Acts of Synod. That Testimony condemned both militarism and pacifism while expressing support for both military personnel and selective conscientious objectors, those who objected to a particular war on moral grounds. I do not assume that this position reflected unanimous opinion within the CRCNA, for I assume that there was no unanimous position regarding any issue within the CRCNA or any other denomination at any time.
Worldly Amusements
Some opposition to “worldly amusements” persisted in the RCA into the 1950s and 1960s. The General Synod of 1911 had opposed the opening of a dance hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey, but the Christian Action Committee (CAC) , in response to an overture regarding to the 1963 General Synod, refused to condemn dancing at church colleges.
Social dancing can be good or evil….
the CAC replied. And, despite the stringent Hays Code governing the censorship of Hollywood movies from 1934 to 1968, the 1940 General Synod condemned “unwholesome” movies and advocated for government censorship of such cinematic products prior to their export. Nevertheless, certain denominational officers encouraged church members to attend some religiously themed films, a fact which seems to have troubled the Classis of Chicago in 1954. The General Synod that year took no action regarding the overture from that classis.
The CRCNA, unlike the RCA, had forbidden its members to play cards, attend movies, or dance. It had done this in 1928 and reaffirmed that position in 1951 in the context of the showing of Hollywood movies at Calvin College. Then the denomination changed course in the middle 1960s. An overture from Classis Eastern Ontario to the Synod of 1964 requested the appointment of a committee to study the issue. That overture, which the Synod approved, noted the ubiquity of television, a post-1951 development. It also reported survey data. Of 615 CRCNA young people in that classis surveyed, 70.7% reported attending a movie theater at least once or twice annually, despite the denomination’s prohibition against doing so. The most common reason for attending a movie theater was entertainment. And the favorite movie was Ben-Hur (1959), with The Ten Commandments (1956) not far behind. A traditionalist argument, then, entailed asserting that watching Bible-themed movies starring Charlton Heston was sinful.
Above: The Crucifixion of Jesus, from Ben-Hur (1959)
Image Source = http://basementrejects.com/review/ben-hur-1959/
It was an argument the Synod of 1966 rejected. The Film Arts Report cited Christian Liberty and stated that
the film arts as actualized in the cinema and television
were
a legitimate cultural medium to be used by the Christian in the fulfillment of the cultural mandate.
Furthermore,
Since the film arts is a cultural medium that can be used for good or evil, the products of the film industry must be judged on their merits in the light of Christian standards or excellence.
(Quotes from Agenda for Synod, 1966, pages 226-227)
Dancing was still forbidden, however. This did not mean that no members of the CRCNA engaged in that activity, of course.
IV. WORSHIP
Now that I have completed the process of laying the foundation I begin to construct the building proper. Along the way I will refer to the foundation.
Opposition to and fear of change was not restricted to questions such as civil rights, “worldly amusements,” the Vietnam War, Bible translations, ecumenical activities, and Biblical inerrancy and infallibility. They became evident also in liturgical matters. For example, the CRCNA Synod of 1961 adopted an overture condemning the increasingly popular practice of “special youth services,” what my Episcopal parish calls “Children’s Church,” whereby children leave the main worship service for a time and have a service geared toward them. The Synod reasoned that
parents and children should serve and worship together.
(Quote from Acts of Synod, 1961, page 514)
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in the Christian Reformed Church in North America
The CRCNA was using English translations of traditional Dutch forms for Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. That started to change in the 1950s and 1960s.
Revision of the Form for the Lord’s Supper came first. The process started with a 1952 overture which noted the archaic language and awkward structure of the ritual. Two successive committees went back and forth with the Synod, which, until the end of the decade, forbade changing the order of the rite. The 1959 Synod approved proposed Forms for trial use through 1963. At the end of that period the committee, responding to feedback from congregations, made some changes. The 1963 Synod approved the revised Forms for trial use for one year. The 1964 Synod adopted those Forms, placing them beside the traditional Form, which became Form Number One. The two new Forms became Form Number Two and Form Number Three.
Form Number One had three parts:
- The Preparatory Exhortation, which included 1 Corinthians 11:23-29;
- The Formulary, which included a reminder of the purpose of the sacrament, followed by a penitential prayer; the Lord’s Prayer; the Apostles’ Creed; the breaking of the bread; the distribution of elements; and the devout singing of a Psalm or the reading of a Biblical chapter recalling the Passion of Jesus; and finally Psalm 103:1-4 and 8-13, Romans 8:32, and Romans 5:8-10; then
- The Thanksgiving, a prayer followed by a repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Forms Two and Three retained that three-part structure, updated some of the language, and introduced noticeable differences. In both the Preparatory Exhortation could come on either the communion Sunday or the preceding one.
Form Number Two:
- Added a prayer for grace at the end of the Preparatory Exhortation;
- Omitted the Lord’s Prayer;
- Allowed for the singing of a hymn during the setting of the table; and
- Provided for the singing of a hymn or the reading of Scripture during the distribution of the elements.
Form Number Three:
- Provided for an alternative prayer at the end of the Preparatory Exhortation;
- Quoted 1 Corinthians 11:23-29 in the Formulary;
- Added a congregational prayer of thanksgiving in the Formulary;
- Retained the Lord’s Prayer at the end of that prayer and prior to the Apostles’ Creed;
- Added the Anglican Comfortable Words to the Formulary; and
- Had the minister read Psalm 103:1-4, Revelation 4:11, and Psalm 145:21 after the completion of the communion.
The designated communion Sundays varied from congregation to congregation. The Synods of 1948 and 1956 rejected overtures for the uniform celebration of the sacrament, despite the argument that the proposed practice would:
- Express unity, and
- Make the celebration of the sacrament easier for traveling CRCNA members.
Nevertheless, the Synods of 1948 and 1956 cited local prerogatives when rejecting these overtures.
The Synod of 1969 approved a proposed Form for the Baptism of Children for trial use.
Proper contextualization requires me to summarize the traditional Form for the Baptism of Infants, as found in the back of Psalter Hymnal (1959), first. So here it is. The old Form begins with a reminder that people are
conceived and born in sin, and therefore are children of wrath
who need spiritual regeneration, that
Holy baptism witnesses and seals unto us the washing away of our sins through Jesus Christ,
and that people of God are,
through baptism, admonished of and obliged unto new obedience, namely, that we cleave to this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we trust in Him, and love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength; that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a godly life….
It continues by stating that children partake in this sinful nature although they do not comprehend these matters and
so again are received unto grace in Christ Jesus….
The traditional Lutheran-Zwinglian Flood Prayer or a variant thereof follows. (I covered the Flood Prayer in Part II of this series.) Then the minister addresses the parents and asks them three questions:
First: Do you acknowledge that our children, though conceived and born in sin and therefore subject to all manner of misery, yea, to condemnation itself, are sanctified in Christ, and therefore as members of the church ought to be baptized?
Second: Do you acknowledge the doctrine which is contained in the Old and the New Testament, and in the articles of the Christian faith, and which is taught here in this Christian church, to be the true and complete doctrine of salvation?
Third: Do you promise and intend to instruct these children, as soon as they are able to understand, in the aforesaid doctrine, and cause them to be instructed therein, to the utmost of your power?
The parents answer in the affirmative, the minister baptizes the children (using the traditional Trinitarian formula), and a prayer of thanksgiving concludes the sacrament.
The proposed Form of 1969, located on pages 336-339 of that year’s Acts of Synod, is quite different:
- It contains no references to Original Sin and emphasizes the faithfulness of God.
- It requires parents to answer two questions (not three) and to confess Christ as “Lord and Savior” and to promise to raise the children in the Christian faith.
- The minister asks the congregation to support the family spiritually.
- The Apostles’ Creed follows.
- The baptism itself ensues, followed by a triumphant hymn and a prayer of thanksgiving.
- The tone is more positive than in the traditional Form.
Here dangles a thread which I will continue in Part VI of this series.
Tradition and Flexibility in the Worship in the Christian Reformed Church in North America
The Synod of 1964, noting that choirs had become more common in CRCNA churches, created a permanent Liturgical Committee to renew forms and practices. The committee performed its duties in a time of rapid change, liturgical and otherwise. The mention of church choirs reminded people of one change, for opposition to choirs had been one justification for founding the CRCNA in 1857.
The Liturgical Committee’s report to the 1968 Synod contained sage advice:
Respect for tradition in liturgy is a fence against individualism and sectarianism. It keeps us from trying to improve liturgy through gimmickry and novelty for the sake of novelty. It will keep reminding us of what is essential and what is peripheral. It is also the best teacher of the lesson of flexibility, for it is the history of liturgy that we observe the fluidities along with the underlying stability of the church’s liturgy.
(Quote from Acts of Synod, page 156)
That properly cautious note came in the midst of liturgical upheavals, including the widespread abandonment of tradition just because it was old. In truth not all tradition was bad and not all change was good; the good and the bad existed in both categories. The Liturgical Committee understood correctly that flexibility was part of the traditions of Christian worship but that outer boundaries were necessary. The alternatives included chaos and the blurring of the line separating worship from entertainment. Both alternatives have become reality, unfortunately.
Psalter Hymnal–Centennial Edition (1959)
The usual maximum lifespan of a Protestant denominational hymnal in the United States is about thirty years. Psalter Hymnal (1934) lasted for a quarter of a century. Work on Psalter Hymnal (1959) began in 1951. One of the reasons for its creation was the improvement over the poetic and musical content of the 1934 volume. The finished product, the Centennial Edition, reflected a preference for the Psalms (310 of 493 musical selections) and retained four-fifths of the content of Psalter Hymnal (1934). The Bible translation was the American Standard Version (ASV) of 1901, consistent with the denomination’s rejection of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) at the time. The Doctrinal Standards and Liturgy were in the back of the volume.
Above: The Centennial Logo of the Christian Reformed Church in North America
A scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor
Among the new content of Psalter Hymnal (1959) was the CRCNA’s Centennial Hymn (1957), by Marie J. Post:
O Lord, beneath Thy guiding hand
Our fathers’ fathers formed our creed,
Brought prayer and psalm to this fair land
And were supplied every need.
+++++
Belief in Thy sustaining power
Restored their hearts in days of fear;
Thy grace and glory, hour by hour,
Gave hope and blessing through each year.
+++++
In every part of life the light
Of knowledge shines, at home, abroad.
May covenant children, taught the right,
Tell others of their sovereign God.
+++++
Thy Name, O Lord, still leads, still draws;
That Name we sing with ardent voice,
That thousands more may know Thy laws
And in Thy saving cross rejoice.
Psalter Hymnal (1959), republished with revised liturgical forms and translations of creeds in 1976, lasted until 1987, when a new Psalter Hymnal took its place.
The Hymnbook (1955)
The RCA, in true ecumenical form, joined with four other denominations to create The Hymnbook (1955). Thus it shared an official hymnal with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC), the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA), the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA), and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), the last three of which had become one denomination by the middle of 1983. The RCA’s Midwestern and Western constituencies had blocked a merger with the UPCNA in 1949, but the two denominations shared a hymnal for seventeen years. (For three of the four Presbyterian denominations who authorized The Hymnbook in 1955 The Worshipbook–Services and Hymns became the next hymnal in the sequence in 1972. On the other hand, the ARPC lists it as an approved hymnal in 2014.) This being the RCA, however, official hymnal status meant little or nothing to many congregations. Many Midwestern churches, for example, did not adopt it.
The Hymnbook (1955) is a conservative hymnal stylistically, for a small minority of hymns dated to later than 1920. Two of these were “Morning Has Broken” (1931) and “Hope of the World” (1953. Editor David Hugh Jones stated that the greatest innovation in the book was the placement of the hymn numbers on the outer edges of the pages. The arrangement of hymns is also far from revolutionary, for it ordered some texts by church year and others by topics.
The Hymnbook (1955) contains more than hymns and service music (1600 selections). In the front are Aids to Worship, Invocations, Prayers of Confession, Assurance of Pardon, Prayers of Thanksgiving, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed. In the back are Scripture Readings (some of them responsive) arranged in three categories:
- The Christian Year,
- The Christian Life, and
- The Civil Year.
These readings come from the Authorized (King James) Version and the Revised Standard Version.
The Hymnbook (1955) had such staying power in the RCA that, in 1987, two years after the debut of the unpopular Rejoice in the Lord (1985), twenty-nine percent of RCA congregations still sang from it. This volume was considerably more popular than its immediate predecessor in the RCA, The Hymnal of the Reformed Church (1920), which only eighty-four congregations (a minute percentage of RCA churches) had adopted by 1928. Of those eighty-four congregations, fifty-seven were dissatisfied with it that year. And no more than seven percent of RCA congregations adopted Rejoice in the Lord. It sold well outside the denomination, however. In fact, my copy bears the stamp of a congregation of the United Church of Christ. Interestingly, many Presbyterian congregations found The Hymnbook unsatisfactory due to the inclusion of gospel songs. They preferred the old Hymnal (1933), a stately worship resource of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
The Liturgy and Psalms (1968)
Attempts to revise the Liturgy of 1906 had been in the works since 1932. They had failed for various reasons:
- Not enough of the Classes approved of proposed changes.
- The proposed merger with the United Presbyterian Church of North America had delayed the process.
- Finally, in 1950, the General Synod created a committee to revise the Liturgy of 1906. That committee produced provisional liturgies, which congregations used from 1952 to 1955. These forms, which returned to Protestant Reformation-era liturgies for inspiration, proved too “Romanist” for many people, so the requisite two-thirds of Classes did not approve the provisional forms by the Spring of 1956.
The RCA, back at Square One, published new provisional services again in 1958, authorizing them for trial use for five years. These rites reached back not only to the Protestant Reformation for inspiration, but all the way back to the second century C.E.–the time of the early church. The form of Holy Communion in the Didache emphasized redemption, not confession of sin. A sufficient number of Classes approved the new forms in 1966, and the hardcover book, intended for the pews, debuted in 1968.
The Liturgy of 1968 was simultaneously ambitious, idealistic, conservative, innovative, and dated. It called for the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper, something still not a reality in most RCA congregations. There were prayers for the harvest yet none regarding nuclear energy and war. The pronouns were archaic, being “Thee,” Thy,” et cetera. Old forms of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were present, as were new ones. Thus the new Liturgy contained conflicting theologies of those sacraments. Was Baptism primarily about Christian initiation or church membership? Whatever one thought about that issue, there was a ritual to affirm it. And the book was generally not in the pews.
The Liturgy of 1968 lasted until 1987, when Worship the Lord replaced it.
Liturgical Variety in the Reformed Church in America
By the late 1960s liturgical variety in the RCA, long a reality evident in the multitude of hymnals congregations used, had increased. Sunday evening services, a Reformed tradition, had become less common, especially in the East. The Liturgy of 1968 met with widespread disregard. And “seeker services” were becoming more plentiful. The tradition was taking quite a beating, despite the best efforts of good liturgical scholars. Worship was becoming more about the people and less about God in many churches. Entertainment was replacing reverence, mystery, and awe frequently. But at least the beat was good, right?
Dutch-Language Worship Resources
Many Dutch people relocated to Canada after World War II. The RCA and the CRCNA competed with each other and other denominations for the allegiances of emigrants while ministering to them during the timeframe this post covers. Most of these new Canadians were poor and knew little or no English when they arrived, so their initial worship resources were mostly in the Dutch language, of course. The CRCNA, which had resisted Americanization for a long time, found itself in the ironic position of encouraging new arrivals to acculturate fairly rapidly.
V. CONCLUSION
Change comes in two varieties–good and bad, yet both types make many people nervous. Good change challenges our prejudices and keeps healthy traditions alive by replenishing the bone marrow in the skeleton of continuity. Bad change abandons that which is laudatory and throws open the city gates for the barbarian forces of gimmickry, narcissism, and trendiness to enter and to commence the reign of schlock.
This has been an account of two parallel spiritual journeys, each of which contained elements laudatory and shameful. Both the RCA and the CRCNA wrestled with change of both the good and the bad varieties from 1945 to 1969. Although the CRCNA moved to its left and toward the theological center, the RCA moved all over the map. Those journeys led to some interesting developments starting in the 1970s.
The saga will continue in Part VI.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HARDCOPY SOURCES
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Third Edition. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
Bible. American Standard Version, 1901, 1929.
__________. Authorized Version, 1611. Updated, 1769.
__________. English Standard Version, 2001.
__________. New International Version, 1973, 1978. Updated, 1984 and 2011.
__________. Revised Standard Version, 1946, 1952. Apocrypha, 1957. Catholic Edition, 1966. Second Edition, 1971. Expanded Apocrypha, 1977. Second Catholic Edition, 2002.
The Book of Psalms for Worship. Pittsburgh, PA: Crown & Covenant Publications, 2010.
Brumm, James Hart, ed. Liturgy Among the Thorns: Essays on Worship in the Reformed Church in America. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007. The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, No. 57.
Coalter, Milton J., et al. Vital Signs: The Promise of Mainstream Protestantism. Second Edition. Grand Haven, MI: FaithWalk Publishing, 2002.
__________, eds. The Confessional Mosaic: Presbyterians and Twentieth-Century Theology. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990.
The Encyclopedia Americana. Volume 19. New York, NY: Americana Corporation, 1962.
Encyclopedia Britannica. Volume 23. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1968.
Hart, D. G. Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America. 1994. Reprint; Phillipsburg, N J: P&R Publishing, 2003.
The Hymnal. Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, 1933. Reprint, 1938.
The Hymnbook. Edited by David Hugh Jones. Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1977.
Japinga, Lynn. Loyalty and Loss: The Reformed Church in America, 1945-1994. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013. The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, No. 77.
The Liturgy of the Reformed Church in America Together with the Psalter Selected and Arranged for Responsive Reading. New York, NY: The Board of Education of the Reformed Church in America, 1968.
Psalter Hymnal. Grand Rapids, MI: CRC Publications, 1987.
Psalter Hymnal: Doctrinal Standards and Liturgy of the Christian Reformed Church. Centennial Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Publication Committee of the Christian Reformed Church, 1959.
Psalter Hymnal: Doctrinal Standards and Liturgy of the Christian Reformed Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Board of Publication of the Christian Reformed Church, 1976.
Rejoice in the Lord: A Hymn Companion to Scripture. Edited by Erik Routley. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985.
Rhodes, Arnold B. The Mighty Acts of God. Richmond, VA: The CLC Press, 1964.
Schuppert, Mildred W. A Digest and Index of the Minutes of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, 1906-1957. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982. The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, No. 8.
__________. A Digest and Index of the Minutes of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, 1958-1977. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979. The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, No. 7.
Smidt, Corwin, et al. Divided By a Common Heritage: The Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America at the Beginning of the New Millennium. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006. The Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America, No. 54.
Thompson, Ernest Trice. Presbyterians in the South. Volume Three. 1890-1972. Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1973.
__________. Through the Ages: A History of the Christian Church. Richmond, VA: The CLC Press, 1965.
Trinity Hymnal–Revised Edition. Suwanee, GA: Great Commission Publications, 1990.
The Worshipbook–Services and Hymns. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1972.
Worship the Lord. Edited by James R. Esther and Donald J. Bruggink. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 9, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF CLARA LUPER, WITNESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
THE FEAST OF ROLAND ALLEN, ANGLICAN MISSIONARY
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
You must be logged in to post a comment.