What's the relationship between the PCA and the CanRC?
This morning I finally managed to find the North Ridge Presbyterian Church (PCA). It was a little hard to find, as it does not have a building of its own, has no outside sign (this apparently is a also a restriction of their rental agreement as in the St. Albert CanRC), and is not a massive congregation.
I've had a little trouble finding anything official regarding the relationship between the PCA and the CanRC other than one rather ambiguous comment. However, the PCA is a member of NAPARC, an organization which includes as members the RCUS, the OPC, and the ERQ (which the CanRC considers sister churches). Apparently, through NAPARC there is a membership transfer agreement in place between these churches. I also heard when talking to people after the service that the pastor of the other PCA in town would be preaching at the local URC this evening, so the relationship between the URC and PCA also appears good (at least locally).
As far as names that you might recognize, according to Wikipedia the denomination's membership includes such individuals as R.C. Sproul, Ligon Duncan (president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals), Marvin Olasky as well as (musically) Steven Curtis Chapman and at least one member of the group Caedmon's Call. These are just a few, though, of the denomination's 330000 members in around 1500 churches.
I've seen some churches in which there is modern music but no little to no theological depth, yet in this church modern instrumentation was using while still singing songs with meaning to them. This was also a church unafraid of modern technology. While hymnals were still distributed and lyrics to any songs outside the hymnals were printing in the liturgy sheet, an LCD projector was used to project lyrics.
Comments
Wes Bredenhof
Mon, 2006-07-03 00:52
Permalink
PCA and CanRC
There is no official relationship of any sort between the PCA and CanRC. The closest we've come to having contact is through our observers at NAPARC. Some of our people have ended up in PCA churches here and there, both in Canada and the US.
David
Mon, 2006-07-03 13:27
Permalink
Hmn. So if there's no
Hmn. So if there's no official relationship is there any way that some visitors from the PCA might be permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper in the CanRC? I know that the Langley CanRC has given away books by people like R.C. Sproul before, so suppose that he decided to visit the church. Is this only available to members of other CanRCs or those the CanRCs has formally declared sister churches? Does it extend to churches that a sister church of the CanRC might consider a sister church? Would it possibly extend to a member of some non-denominational reformed church?
Wes Bredenhof
Mon, 2006-07-03 14:56
Permalink
PCA and Lord's Supper
I can only speak for the Langley church. We have a policy on admission to the Lord's Supper that does allow for the admission of guests who do not belong to a sister church. So long as there is no local PCA church (as far as I know, there is not anymore), somebody like R.C. Sproul would be welcome once he has been interviewed by the elders. And even if there is a local PCA church, we would still consider his request. In the past, Langley has admitted visitors from the Netherlands who were members of Reformed churches that have no ties with the CanRC and have no churches in Canada.
David
Mon, 2006-07-03 14:58
Permalink
So long as there is no local
So long as there is no local PCA church (as far as I know, there is not anymore)
There's Christ the King in Surrey, and two additional PCAs in Vancouver.
Wes Bredenhof
Mon, 2006-07-03 15:31
Permalink
PCA in Surrey
I'd heard that Christ the King folded. Maybe that was just a rumour. Whatever the case may be, we'd still consider a request.
Scott
Tue, 2006-07-04 15:17
Permalink
St. Albert has the same
St. Albert has the same interview policy.