Reformed Church in America

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The Reformed Church in America was established on this continent 150 years before the Revolutionary War.  The word reformed comes from the Protestant Reformation, which swept across Europe in the 1500's under the leadership of Martin Luther and John Calvin.  Calvin's reformation at Geneva spread to many countries, including Scotland (where it became the Presbyterian Church) and the Netherlands (where it became the RCA's predecessor, the Dutch Reformed Church).  The Dutch Reformed Church established its first congregation in New Amsterdam in 1628.  There were 946 congregations with approximately 300,000 members in the U.S. in 1997.

Abortion: The Bible teaches the sanctity of human life.  People are given the precious gift of life from God and are created in the image of God.  Therefore the RCA believes, in principle, that abortion ought not to be practiced at all.  Abortions performed for personal reasons to ensure individual convenience ought not to be permitted.  However, in this complex society where many times one form of evil is pitted against another form of evil, there could be exceptions.  The ability to make a decision regarding legal abortion is every person's right under Christian freedom.

Affiliations: The Reformed Church in America is a member of the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. With the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church, USA, it entered into a "Formula of Agreement" with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, allowing full pulpit and table fellowship.

Baptism: Christ places baptism in the world as a seal of God's covenant to people, placing them in ministry and assuring them of forgiveness of sins.

Bioethics: The General Synod Commission on Christian Action has prepared papers on ethical issues raised by new genetic technologies in 1986, 1988, 1999

Capital Punishment: The church is compelled to speak against the lovelessness and evil of capital punishment.  It urges members to advocate for the abolition of capital punishment and to call for an immediate moratorium on executions.

Christ's Return: Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Communion: Christ places the Lord's Table in this world.  Jesus takes up the bread and wine to represent his sacrifice, to bind his ministry to the cornmunicants' daily work, and to unite them in his righteousness.  Here Christ is present in his world proclaiming salvation until he comes, a symbol of hope for a troubled age.

Creation vs.  Evolution: The Father Almighty made the heavens and the earth-all that is, seen and unseen. The church has a biblical mandate to tend and keep creation.

Deity of Jesus: Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, sharing human genes and instincts, entering human culture, speaking the language, fulfilling the law of God.  Jesus Christ is the hope of God's world.  In his death, the justice of God is established and forgiveness of sin is proclaimed.  On the day of the resurrection, Jesus' tomb was empty.

Divorce and Remarriage: God's intention for marriage is permanency.  Divorce involves sin.  There are only two permissible grounds for divorce: adultery, based on the exceptive clause in Matthew 19:9, and desertion of the believing spouse by the unbeliever, based upon the so-called "Pauline Privilege" in I Corinthians 7:15.  A pastor may with good conscience officiate in the remarriage of divorced persons, if, in his judgment and the judgment of the congregation's board of elders, the persons have met the following requirements: they recognize their personal responsibility for the failure of the former marriage, they are penitent and have made an effort to overcome limitations and failures, they have forgiven the former partner, they have fulfilled their obligations involved in the former marriage, and they are willing to make the new marriage a Christian one by dependence upon Christ and participation in his church.

Euthanasia: With regard to physician-assisted suicide, the task of the church is to create a Christian community of care.  The one who suffers and those who give care to the sufferer most need a community in which: people are united by grace, people affirm that one has a right to stay alive without justifying his or her existence, and people who can also understand the deep humanity of situations in which those suffering are tempted to take their own lives as an end to suffering.  To decry physician-assisted suicide without offering the loving, caring community which takes away the occasion for suicide is to offer law when grace is needed.

Government: Each RCA congregation is governed by an elected Consistory, made up of elders, deacons, and pastors.  Several RCA congregations in the same geographic region make up a classis.  All ordained ministers are accountable to a classis, which supervises the churches within its region.  The denomination is divided into eight regional synods, which are made up of the churches and classis within their geographical boundaries.  The General Synod is the highest representative body of the church, meeting once a year to make decisions which affect the life and work of the entire RCA.  This body, made up of elder and clergy delegates from each classis, sets overall policy and program direction for the denomination.

Heaven/Hell: In the age to come, Christ is the judge, rejecting unrighteousness, isolating God's enemies to hell, and blessing the new creation in Christ.

Homosexuality: Homosexual behavior is not God's intended expression of sexuality.  Homosexuality is neither more nor less serious than other forms of human sinfulness.  There are varied and complex causes of homosexual orientation and behavior; hence, simplistic analyses and solutions should be questioned.  Any expectation for persons of homosexual orientation to experience wholeness should be shaped by both the hope and the realism of the Christian life.  Homosexual persons should be accorded their full measure of human and civil rights.

Inspiration of Scripture: The final authority in reformed faith is the Bible.  The Bible is God's Word for every person, made understandable and alive through the Holy Spirit's ministry.  It is more than a textbook; it is the living Word of God, the source of all revelation of God's will, and the norm by which all teaching must be checked.

Security of Salvation: Those who call on the name of Jesus will have eternal life.

Speaking in Tongues and Other Gifts of the Spirit: By definition a Christian is one who has received the gift of the Spirit.  And while the Christian ought to seek and pray for an ever-greater appropriation of this gift, and may rejoice in every experience of revitalization, he need not seek a second (spiritual) baptism. The filling with the Spirit is not a once-for-all experience, but one that should happen again and again continuously.  The experience is not an end in itself, but a means to an end: to equip one to witness to Jesus Christ and his saving work.  To be filled by the Spirit is basically the same as being indwelt by the spirit of Christ.

Trinity: The church believes in God the Father, Jesus Christ his only Son, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, 

Women in Ministry: Women are ordained and serve in all offices of the church.
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For more information contact:
RCA Communications Dept.
475 Riverside Dr.
New York, NY 10115
Phone: (212) 870-3020
Fax: (212) 870-2499;
E-mail:  rcamail@iserv.net
Web site: www.rca.org 

Church information from The 60-Second Guide to Denominations: Understanding Protestant Churches of North America (2003) by Shelly Steig, Published by World Bible Publishers, Inc.  Iowa Falls, Iowa