Reformed Church In America

Congregations of the Reformed Church in America strive to make their worship both orderly and informal in the effort to reach out to visitors and others seeking a church relationship. Other church ministries, such as social witness, education and pastoral care, find expression through the church's worship life.

The Reformed Church in America is one of the oldest denominations in North America, tracing its roots to the Dutch Reformed church which established a congregation on Manhattan Island in 1628. The Reformed church presently has about 330,000 members in almost 1,000 congregations in the United States and Canada. The denomination has a presbyterian form of government in which lay people are elected as elders, to care for the spiritual concerns of a congregation, and as deacons, to care for the needy. Elders, deacons, and the minister make up the consistory, which is responsible for the worship and ministry in a local congregation. Worship in Reformed congregations may be described as semi-liturgical. This means that the orders for the sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper) are determined, but the format of weekly worship is left to the discretion of the consistory. Women in Worship. Women have been ordained in the Reformed church since the late 1970s. Although women represent more than 25 percent of the present seminary population, they continue to find it difficult to be called into pastoral ministries. The slow but sure process of integration of women into the ranks of the ordained is expected to take at least a generation. The issue of language in worship is as important in the Reformed church as in other mainline denominations. Although liturgical language regarding people has become far more inclusive, images regarding God remain dominantly masculine. Worship and Social Ministry. Reformed congregations are often deeply involved in the concerns of their local communities. It is not unusual to find day-care centers, food pantries, counseling services and recreational programs housed in local churches. Because of the denomination's deep and historic commitment to world and local missions, international and neighborhood concerns play an important role in the sermons, prayers, and programs of the church. For example, the crisis in South Africa, because of its connection with the white Dutch Reformed church in that country, has been a major focus for the denomination and local churches for the past decades, in both the church's worship and witness life. Services may include intercessions, sermon allusions, and an offering of letters on behalf of those who suffer the pain of apartheid. In the denominational program offices, both social witness and worship are the responsibility of the same staff person. This combination of worship and witness illustrates the support each give to the other. Worship and Education. The integration of children into worship took a new turn in the 1980s when the General Synod approved the right of each board of elders to admit children to the Lord's Supper. Although many churches have children's sermons or have developed a ministry entitled "?Children and Worship?" which often runs concurrently with the adult service, the move to allow children to participate in the sacramental meal may mean that local worship will become more accessible to the church's youngest members. As the Reformed churches in general embrace the liturgical year as one of the guiding principles of their worship, educational curricula utilized by Reformed Church in America congregations, developed in cooperation with other Reformed bodies, have grown far more conscious of the church year and the Common Lectionary in their lessons. Worship and Pastoral Care. Pastoral care enters the worship service when those who are in the hospital or in need are mentioned by name in the intercessions of the church. The pastoral care of members and friends of the local congregation is a high priority, and is exercised through public worship, pastoral calls, and the private sharing of the sacrament with the homebound. In the mid 1980s, the denomination published a service for healing in a collection of optional liturgies. This service, which can be integrated into morning worship or stand by itself, has been utilized by a broad spectrum of churches. Congregations which would describe themselves as deeply evangelical and pietistic, as well as those which would claim the adjective liturgical, have discovered it to be an important aid in healing. The service includes prayers for the sick and the option of anointing with oil those who seek healing. Worship and Evangelism. Evangelism is also a high priority to many Reformed congregations. The last decade has witnessed a growth in intentional programs designed to encourage the inviting of friends and neighbors to worship services and congregational gatherings. In addition, local congregations have tried to make worship more friendly to visitors by being conscious of hospitality and by making the Sunday bulletin and service more accessible to someone who is not familiar with church language and traditions. The Reformed Church in America published its own hymn book, Rejoice in the Lord, in 1985. It has been received with considerable approval both within the denomination and beyond. Because the denomination has no required hymn book, however, there is wide divergence in the use of hymns in local congregations. A survey of worship life conducted in 1987 revealed that the most popular hymn books were The Hymnbook, Worship and Service, and Rejoice in the Lord. Almost half the congregations reported the use of other hymn books. The freedom of local congregations to create their own worship styles is probably seen most clearly in the great variety of hymns sung across the denomination. Although the Reformed Church in America was dominantly a Dutch church in the early centuries, it has always welcomed a variety of immigrants into its life. There presently are four councils which represent the concerns and gifts of the African American, Native American, Hispanic, and Pacific Asian members of the Reformed church. The presence of a multitude of cultures and language groups has been an important ingredient in moving the denomination to look beyond its predominantly white, middle-class membership. Worship remains for the Reformed Church in America the central activity of the local church. Congregations pride themselves in worship which is both orderly and informal and in preaching which is both biblical and relevant. In addition, a regular and sensitive experience of the sacraments, music that brings joy to worship, the emphasis on pastoral care of its community, and a socially involved congregation have become the hallmarks of worship in the Reformed church.