Christian Reformed Church in North America - History

History

The Christian Reformed Church split from the Reformed Church in America in an 1857 Secession, which was in part the result of a theological dispute that originated in the Netherlands. Some other denominations later merged with the CRC, most notably the True Protestant Dutch Reformed Church (also known as the True Reformed Dutch Church) in 1890. Other churches later split from the CRC, including the Protestant Reformed Churches (1924–1926), the Orthodox Christian Reformed Churches (OCRC) in 1988, and the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA) in 1996.

In the closing decades of the 20th century, the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church enacted changes that were troubling to the more conservative members of its constituency, especially its 1995 decision to ordain women to ministerial positions. One result of this decision was that the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) broke fraternal relations with the CRC in 1997. The membership of the CRC in the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council, the single largest gathering of conservative Reformed denominations in the United States, was suspended in 1999 and terminated in 2001. This gradual doctrinal shift has spurred more conservative congregations to leave, and a significant number of these have ended up in either the PCA, OPC, or the OCRC and URCNA mentioned above.

In 2007, the CRC commemorated its sesquicentennial, themed "Grace Through Every Generation: Remembering, Rejoicing, and Rededicating".