“…it is also now clear that a majority on the Board do not wish for Erskine to be an “agency” of the Church that is organically related to the Synod. Instead, it envisions a “cooperative” relationship of essentially independent entities in which the Board is not accountable to the Synod. In short, after decades of... Continue Reading

Response of the Erskine College and Theological Seminary Board of Trustees to the 2011 General Synod’s Requests February 17, 2012 theaquilareport.com/files/ECBoardResponse.pdf [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]

The net result of this was that the coalition of the right and center wings of the church was reestablished, and this right/center majority “ran the table.” That is to say, it did not lose a single vote of any ideological consequence. In retrospect, it is now clear that the influx of ministers trained at... Continue Reading

One recommendation from that report was to consider ending its relationship with the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel (PCCMP) as an endorsement agency and seek endorsement from the Presbyterian and Reformed Joint Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel (PRJC). The day began with a wonderful sermon preached by the Rev. Paul Patrick, campus... Continue Reading

General Synod 2011 began this morning with a wonderful sermon by Rev. Kyle Sims from 1 Corinthians 1. Rev. Sims challenged pastors to make prayer a priority, to pray after the sermon (i.e., to pray on Sunday afternoon for the work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the word), to pray for the... Continue Reading

The 2011 meeting of the General Synod of the ARP Church opened with a worship service on Tuesday evening. Rev. Dr. John R. DeWitt preached a stirring sermon on 2 Timothy 2:1-11, focusing on a section of verse 9 — “The word of God is not chained.” And this year Dr. DeWitt also administered the... Continue Reading

With about 30 minutes remaining until the time fixed for recess at 9:30PM, the Synod moved to consider Committee Reports. In just 24 minutes, the Synod accomplished the following: Approved the continuation for one year of the Strategic Planning Committee. Approved the report as a whole of the Theological and Social Concerns Committee. · The... Continue Reading

Principle Actions of Synod concerning Erskine College and Seminary have been previously posted (see http://bit.ly/a9ChBC). This story includes a report of all other actions from Thursday, June 10 Vice Moderator, The Rev. Robert E. (Rob) Patrick, III, gaveled the meeting of the 2010 ARP Synod at 8:30AM on Thursday, June 10, 2010. Once again the... Continue Reading

While a lot of questions remain unanswered, and some of the business didn’t get finished, the ARP Synod’s rules forced them to go home at 9:00PM In a full day of business meetings, the 206th Meeting of the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Church gathered at the Bonclarken Conference Center once again on Thursday,... Continue Reading

The primary business scheduled for this evening was to hear the annual address by the President of the APP Women’s Ministries and official greetings from Fraternal Delegates of several sister denominations. After many, many meetings of committees and Presbyteries, and the normal fine meal in the Bonclarken dining hall, the delegates returned to the Youth... Continue Reading