Mother Church

Here is an article I wrote for a Column in Clarion which I co write with my Brother George

Ecumena

Commentary on News and Trends in the International Church

Mother Church

In Sept. 2010, The Bishop of Rome, Benedict XVI came to London, to visit the Queen, the head of the Church of England. Some 500 years earlier, the King of England, Henry VIII, had broken with Rome and declared himself head of the new Church of England. Since then, the British Monarchs have been titular head of the Anglican Church. In the years that followed Henry’s break, the Anglican Church joined the Reformation. Under the direction of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and with the ascendancy of Elizabeth I to the throne, Calvinism came to London and Westminster. Since then, the Anglican Church has been part of the Protestant world.

Benedict addressed the combined houses of Westminster, the “Mother of all Parliaments”. It used to be a beheading crime to vow allegiance to Rome in Westminster Hall, but relations, it seems, are better now. (Although Tony Blair left the Anglican Church for the Roman Church only after he left No. 10 Downing Street: no British Prime Minister could be allied with Rome, after all!) Later that same day Benedict joined Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in Westminster Abbey. There no Pope had ever set foot in its 1000-year history.  The Anglican Church had invited many, and in the congregation were official representatives of the many branches of British Protestantism: Methodists, Baptists, Reformed, Presbyterian. And so, in Westminster Abbey, the “Coronation Church” of the British throne, Archbishop Williams the Protestant, and Pope Benedict of Rome, greeted each other with the hand of fellowship and with a kiss at “the passing of the peace” and the congregation broke out in spontaneous applause. Benedict’s wry smile betrayed his pleasure at the moment! During his discourses that day, at both Westminster Hall—to the Parliament—and at Westminster Abbey—to the Church—he did not shy away from reminding the audience that he was the successor to the bishopric of Peter. In other words, “I am head of the church, not Rowan Williams; not Elizabeth II.  Rome is the ‘Mother Church’.”

His visit to London is a remarkable moment in the history of England, Britain, the Commonwealth and the world, but more so in the history of the church. One of the great Protestant churches of the world makes peace with Rome, but does not speak of their differences.

Closer to home, however, something different happened this year. The GKNv, our sister churches in the Netherlands (in a certain way, our ‘mother church’) has for the past decades sought to extend the hand of fellowship to many Reformed churches around the world. They were instrumental in the founding of the ICRC (International Conference of Reformed Churches). They have investigated various churches, and recognized and declared them true churches, and desired to have ecclesiastical fellowship with them. Recently they invited the OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church) to enter into a closer relationship; full ecclesiastical fellowship. (In our older vocabulary, they asked the OPC to formalize a “sister church relationship.”)  The OPC would find their history not in the Netherlands, but in Westminster. 100 years after Cranmer, the English churches met at Westminster Abbey, and drafted the Westminster Confessions (WCF). Via Scotland, these confessions became the standard of English Presbyterianism, also in North America.

Students of our own church history will know that it took nearly 40 years for us to move to that full relationship with the OPC. One of the obstacles we had was the “sister church” relationship the OPC had with the CRCNA (Christian Reformed Church). We had doubts about the faithfulness of the CRC and its trends concerning the truths of scripture.

Remarkably, the OPC has declined the invitation of the GKNv. At their General Assembly, in June 2010, they made (in part) the following decision.

However, the Assembly believes that, given the serious nature of the obligations undertaken in the sister church relationship, such relationships should not be entered into in situations where the Assembly finds itself unable to affirm, without reservation, that the other church is indeed Reformed in its confessional standards, church order, or life. It is our prayer that the Lord would be merciful to our GKNv brothers and grant them grace to work through the weighty issues facing them—particularly those touching upon the sufficiency (WCF 1.6), interpretation (WCF 1.9), and authority (WCF 1.10) of Scripture, that seem to be currently troubling the GKNv—in a manner that is in full obedience to and accord with Scripture (Article VII of the Belgic Confession).

Two strands of the English Church: both look to continental Europe. One looks to Rome approvingly; the other looks to the Dutch Reformed, and finds it lacking.  Perhaps we too need to look to our “mother church” and warn them seriously of encroaching error. Our Presbyterian “Westminster” brothers and sisters are hailing the first serious warning: “We are unable to affirm, without reservation, that the [GKNv] is indeed Reformed.” 

We must yet extend the right hand of fellowship to our “mother”, and be willing to give a kiss in peace—but not at the expense of the truth!

jvp