19 Jul GS 2022 art 61

Posted at 14:14h in CanRC, GS 2022 by

GS 2022 Article 61 – CRTS (Board of Governors)

1.   Material

  • 1.1    Report of the Board of Governors (BoG) of the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary (CRTS) (8.2.4.1).
  • 1.2    Appointments to BoG (Finance and Property Committee) (8.2.4.3).
  • 1.3    Letter from the Toronto-Bethel CanRC (8.3.4.8), expressing a concern regarding the proposed update to Bylaw 12 Sections 3.8.  It urged caution in making decisions by email.

2.   Admissibility

  • 2.1    The submissions were declared admissible.

3.   Decisions

Synod decided:

  • 3.1    To receive the report, as well as all its appendices;
  • 3.2    To acknowledge the expiration of the terms of office of Rev. Matthew VanLuik and brs. Butch Medemblik and Frank Oostdyk and to express gratitude for their work;
  • 3.3    Pursuant to Section 5(2) of the Act and Section 3.04 of By-Law 12, to appoint, elect or re-appoint six active ministers to hold office until the next General Synod and to appoint at least three substitutes from each Regional Synod area, keeping in mind that the By-laws prohibit anyone from serving more than three consecutive terms:
    • 3.3.1   To relieve Rev. Rob Schouten (from RSW) of his duties on the Board of Governors due to health concerns. GS 2022 expresses its gratitude to Rev. Schouten for his faithful service;
    • 3.3.2   To re-appoint as governors, for a term lasting until the next General Synod: from RSW, Rev. Joe Poppe and Rev. James Slaa; from RSE, Rev. John Louwerse;
    • 3.3.3   To re-appoint as governor, for a term lasting until the second subsequent General Synod: from RSE, Rev. Clarence J. VanderVelde;
    • 3.3.4   To appoint as governors for a term lasting until the third subsequent General Synod: from RSW, Rev. Julius VanSpronsen (first alternate: Rev. Doug Vandeburgt; second alternate: Rev. Dave DeBoer); from RSE, Rev. Jeff Temple (first alternate: Rev. Bill DeJong; second alternate: Rev. Theo Wierenga);
  • 3.4    Pursuant to Section 5(2) of the Act and Section 3.04 of By-Law 12, to appoint, elect or re-appoint five non-ministerial governors and to appoint at least two substitutes, keeping in mind that the By-laws prohibit anyone from serving more than three consecutive terms:
    • 3.4.1   To re-appoint as non-ministerial governors for a term lasting until the next General Synod: Brs. Kasper VanVeen and Peter Vandersluis;
    • 3.4.2   To re-appoint as non-ministerial governor for a term lasting until the second subsequent General Synod: Br. Alan Datema;
    • 3.4.3   To appoint as non-ministerial governor for a term lasting until the third subsequent General Synod: Brs. Adrian Bartels and Herman Post (alternates: Brs. Mike Bork and Paul Broekema, in that order);
  • 3.5    To request the churches to continue to remember in their prayers the needs of: Mrs. G. Deddens, Mrs. M. DeJong, Dr. & Mrs. N.H. Gootjes, Dr. & Mrs. C. VanDam and Dr. & Mrs. G. Visscher;
  • 3.6    To give leave to the Board to appoint Dr. Jason VanVliet as principal for the years 2022-2025;
  • 3.7    To give leave to the Board to grant tenure to Dr. Ted VanRaalte;
  • 3.8    To approve the proposed updates to Bylaw 12 Sections 3.8 and 13.01 (The complete texts of the proposed updates can be found on pages ten and eleven of the CRTS Board of Governors Report to GS 2022);
  • 3.9    To approve all other decisions and actions of the Board and of its committees for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 until the date of this Report:
    • 3.9.1   To authorize the Board of Governors to review current policies regarding admission standards for mature students (see: Strategic Planning – BoG Report pg.7), recognizing that any proposed changes would need to interact with the decisions of GS 1980 (Art. 44, Section II);
  • 3.10  To express gratitude for the support received from the Free Reformed Churches of Australia;
  • 3.11  To consider the audited financial statements and the report of the Auditors for the previous fiscal periods; to relieve the Treasurer of the Board of all responsibilities for these fiscal periods; to support and recommend the reappointment of DBK Accounting as Auditor until the next General Synod, subject to the discretion and direction of the Board;
  • 3.12  To acknowledge with gratitude, the financial contributions of the Women’s Savings Action to the well-being of the Seminary.

4.   Grounds

  • 4.1    Re 3.8: The proposed update to the bylaw simply provides a process for dealing with proposed resolutions which was already in place for communication by regular mail, by making it applicable to email correspondence. Further, the proposed update to the Bylaw requires a quorum;
  • 4.2    Re 3.9.1: Though the decision of GS 1980 (Art. 44) prohibits those who have not obtained a Bachelor’s degree from being admitted to the M.Div. program, there is merit in undertaking a review of this policy as part of the long term strategic planning of CRTS.

The following synod members abstained from voting and asked that this be recorded: Rev. James Slaa and Rev. Clarence VanderVelde, both as members of the Board of Governors, Elder George Bartels, Rev. Jeff Temple.

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