Rev. R. Stienstra, representing the United Reformed Churches in North America, addressed the delegates with the following words:

Esteemed Brothers,

As spokesman of the Committee for Ecumenical Relations and Church Unity of the United Reformed Churches in North America, I first of all want to thank you for extending the invitation to us to be present as observers at your General Synod in 1998. For us this is a historic occasion. Whereas we have had a number of times during the past years when we became acquainted with your deputies at our assemblies, today constitutes a special event for us, and we treasure it.

On behalf of the committee I bring you fraternal greetings from our federation. The 70 churches consisting of some 17,000 souls wish you God's richest blessing as you strive to be faithful and true to the high calling of being His people in the midst of a sinful world. May the Lord Who gathers, defends, and preserves for Himself a church chosen unto everlasting life, continue to use and bless your federation in the North American setting as He has done so evidently in the past fifty years.

Your deputies for the promotion of ecclesiastical unity have responded to the correspondence from the URC committee for ecumenical relations and church unity in a positive way. After a year or two of such correspondence, and with the input of the URC Synod of St. Catharines in 1997, our committee considered the time had come to propose that the progress made in previous correspondence be advanced by face to face meetings. With the willingness of your deputies two of such meetings have taken place in 1998 with a third one scheduled in September.

From our side we are pleased that your deputies were agreeable that our mutual objective should be integrated federative unity. The two sides could not (yet) agree on the most suitable pathway or strategy toward that unity. In general both parties agreed to follow the Dutch model of verkenning, herkenning, and erkenning. The deputies proposed "recognition, acceptance, and union." The committee suggested, "exploration, recognition, and integration." A suitable resolution is being worked out.

I expect that your deputies have reported these matters to the Synod. In any case a report will in due time appear in the church papers. I wish to add some comments, however, in conveying the greetings of the United Reformed Churches.

Our two federations have much in common, such as the Three Forms of Unity and an identical Form of Subscription; not to mention the same ecclesiastical forms, as well as the Church Order of Dort as basis for our respective orders. But there are some distinctives. We share a similar history, yet one which has its distinctives as well. One such distinctive, I continue to use the word here, is the fact that the URC finds its beginning in the secessions during the present decade from the Christian Reformed Church.

Most of our members were born and raised in the CRC, and most of the churches of our federation are in the United States and do not trace their history directly via the Doleantie of 1886, nor the Secession of 1834. Their forefathers immigrated during the 1850s and founded the CRC in 1857. Of course, our 29 Canadian churches consist mainly of members who share your origins in the Gereformeerde Kerken in Holland, but who did not join the Liberated churches in 1944.

In some sense the United Reformed Churches are the legitimate continuation of the Christian Reformed Church. We seek to be faithful to the Confessions and true to the Scriptures. This brings me to the matter of recognition and the true church of Christ in terms of the Belgic Confession, Articles 27-29.

We confess as you do that we are "a holy congregation and assembly of the true Christian believers, who expect their entire salvation in Jesus Christ, are washed by His blood and sealed by the Holy Spirit." As such we are part of the one catholic or universal Church. The United Reformed Churches consider themselves to be the true church of Christ. With dedication and faithfulness the office-bearers see to it that the pure preaching of the gospel is proclaimed. The churches maintain the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them. The elders seek to exercise church discipline for the correcting and punishing of sins.

Although weakness and sin continue to be evident in our churches, and hypocrites are mixed in with the good, yet without hesitation we consider ourselves the true church of Christ. It is out of this conviction that our committee is persuaded that mutual recognition of each other as faithful and true churches of the Lord needs to take place sometime on the road to integrated ecclesiastical unity between the Canadian Reformed Churches and the United Reformed Churches. I stress sometime during the process rather than at its conclusion.

But then, mutual recognition is not an empty, vague gesture nor an expression of the concept of church pluriformity. We view the teaching of church pluriformity unscriptural and non-conforming to the Reformed confessions. Our committee is convinced that mutual recognition has serious consequences for both church bodies. We propose that after adequate dialogue between us has taken place, some ecclesiastical fellowship be entered upon which contains the ingredients that in principle pulpit exchange and table fellowship be allowed to be a stimulant in the movement toward full integration.

Let me expand a little. To our committee it is inconceivable that the Scriptures teach, or that the Reformed Confessions propound that when two churches are in agreement that both demonstrate and practice faithfully the three marks of the true church as confessed in the Belgic Confession, Article 29, there should not be some form of Biblical fellowship between them beyond the perfunctory.

I conclude with this final notation. The URC committee on which I serve has written to your deputies that we "consider the secession of 1944, or the Liberation, to be God's way and work to bring His people back to Himself from deviant teachings and practices." We also wrote to you that "we believe that the CRC should have established relations with the liberated churches in the Netherlands and discontinued them with with Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland."

Brothers, may the King of the Church prosper and bless you in your labors as General Synod these days, and may He also bless and prosper our mutual efforts toward ecclesiastical unity. To Him alone be the glory!

Rev. W. B. Slomp responded to Rev. R. Stienstra's address on behalf of the URCNA with the following words:

Dear Rev. R. Stienstra, Rev. P. Vellenga, and Rev. R. Sikkema,

I was given very short notice that I would be responding to your address. Thus my words may not be as well-chosen as I would like them to be. My response, therefore, will be more from the heart than from the head. In other words, my words will deal more with the substance of the matter than with the details. For I have the added disadvantage, as far as my preparation is concerned, of not being on the committee charged to deal with you. I am not privy to the fine details of our current dealings with each other on a federal level.

Nevertheless, I am quite pleased to be asked to speak a few words to you. For your churches are very close to my heart, both physically and spiritually. For as you may or may not be aware, I come from the church at Neerlandia, and members of your churches use our church building. Also Rev. Hoekstra, the minister of the local URCNA, lives right across the road from me. Furthermore, living in the small community such as Neerlandia, the people are in frequent contact with each other. Thus, because of our daily contact with each other, we are constantly reminded of our separate ecclesiastical existence. And that hurts us. We are desirous also of a spiritual unity.

In Neerlandia we were glad when a group of people left the CRC, not because a split came about in the CRC, but because it meant a going back to the truth of the Scriptures, and as they are confessed in the Three forms of unity. And when a few years later the Emmanuel church joined together with others to form the URCNA, we were also glad. For that meant there was the realization that an independent existence as local church cannot be maintained on the basis of the Scriptures. The Lord teaches us that as His children we belong together. He teaches us that we also need each other. We live in a world that is hostile to God and His commands. Satan attacks us from all sides. He attacks us from without and within. All our energy is needed to withstand the fiery darts of the evil one. Our energy ought to be pooled, and ought not to be used to be in continuing our division. We are one in faith. We must also express that unity.

Thus, I was very much encouraged when I heard you speak the words as you did this evening. It is clear from your words that we are already very close, and that you also see the need for even greater closeness. You have already adopted your version of the Church Order of Dort, which is not that much different from ours. And now I also hear you say that you consider "the secession of 1944, or the Liberation, to be God's way and work to bring His people back to Himself from deviant teachings and practices." In your synod report you also make similar statements and have many positive things to say about us. Furthermore, you state in that report that the CRC was wrong in not establishing contact with the liberated churches in the Netherlands.

Such statements gladden our hearts. They gladden our hearts, not so that we can now say, "See, we were right after all." No, the pain of our separate existence from the CRC was always keenly felt. That is why the post-war immigrants who belonged in the Netherlands to the Liberated Churches first joined themselves to the CRC. And that is why we also wrote our appeals in 1963 and in 1977 when you were still in the CRC. And now, for all intents and purposes, the concerns expressed in those documents have been addressed.

Why did we want those issues to be dealt with in one way or the other? So that the truth may be established, not for our sakes, but for the honour and glory of God, and so that there may be a people here on earth established in the truth.

Brothers, on behalf of synod I welcome you in our midst. May your presence contribute to the maintenance of God's truth, and to the unity of His people in true faith. May the Lord bless our contact with each other. May the Lord bless you and guide you.