UPDATE: Women in Office in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKV)
Back in May, I reported on Stroom’s application to become an instituted church in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKV) — the Dutch sister churches of the CanRC. You may recall that this was controversial because Stroom, a GKV church plant in Amsterdam, has a provisional council which includes female elders.
Een in Waarheid has the latest update here in Dutch (with a very rough English translation here). To summarize, Stroom withdrew its application to Classis Amsterdam-Leiden. The Classis therefore could not make a decision on the application. However, it did issue a declaration with a number of points. One of the points expresses regret that the application was withdrawn. Another point urges the churches to give more thought to the role of men and women in the offices of the church. In other words, while this battle may be over, there are likely more to come. At the very least, this controversy tells us that there are some leaders in the GKV who are sympathetic to the idea of women in office.
