Psalm 117, “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples,” opened worship for Synod 2026 on June 13, as delegates met in plenary session before returning to advisory committee deliberations for most of the day.
The assembly sang in Spanish and English, with worship leader Rachel Bouwkamp welcoming participants to “sing in your heart language.” With coaching from Bouwkamp on pronunciation, all repeated the mutual greeting, “The Lord be with you; and also with you,” in English, Spanish, and Korean.
Synod is the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. It is meeting June 12-18 on the campus of Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Denominational prayer shepherd Jon Hoekema read through Psalm 62:1-7. “My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge,” he read, asking delegates to consider, “What does it look like for you to rest in God in the midst of being anxious, overwhelmed, and waiting on God to show up? … Where are moments where he is your refuge?”
WATCH: Jon Hoekema joins interim Banner editor Lora Copley for the Thursday, June 11 Synod Recap.
After worship, synod took care of one piece of business: approving, or receiving as information, all the items the program committee had designated to be part of a “consent agenda.” Synod has been using this tool since 2022 to quickly process matters for which no discussion is expected. If requested by a delegate, anything originally designated as part of the consent agenda can be removed to be addressed and discussed separately.
Accepted all at once on Saturday were the following:
- the Council of Delegates’ report on its membership and nominations (Agenda for Synod 2026, pp. 21-24)
- the very short report of the Bible Translations Committee, which had no requests in the past year to conduct a review of any Bible translations (Agenda, p. 25)
- note of the 2025 denominational survey (also Agenda, p. 25)
- note of the Office of General Secretary’s response to Synod 2025’s request to compile resources on the Nicene Creed (Agenda, p. 26)
- approving Cascade Fellowship Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids as the convening church for Synod 2027 (Agenda, p. 28)
- updates to the charter for the denomination’s Ministries Leadership Council, “a collaborative binational table of the senior leaders of the ministry boards and synodically mandated agencies and institutions of the CRCNA” (Agenda, pp. 291-93)
- the denomination’s consolidated financial reports (Agenda pp. 113-124 and pp. 480-488 (supplement)
- recommended offering schedule (Agenda, p. 47), including special offerings for Resonate Global Mission, World Renew, Calvin Theological Seminary, Calvin University, Canadian Justice Ministries, ReFrame Ministries, and Thrive
- note of adjusted term assignments of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee members (Agenda, p. 216)
- note interim appointments of synodical deputies and other board and committee positions (Agenda Supplement, p. 434)
Synod 2026, the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is meeting June 12-18 on the campus of Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich. Go to crcna.org/synod for the livestream, photos, reports, and a live blog of synod proceedings and decisions. Find daily news and our video Synod Recap at thebanner.org/synod.