Over the decades, both foreign missions and interchurch relations have been a precious part of the life of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. At our very first general assembly, when our fathers (and now grandfathers) in the faith were feeling very much alone and still reeling from the events that had led to our founding, the Christian Reformed Church of North America sent a telegram of greeting to us, inviting us to send a fraternal delegate to the meeting of their synod—and we were delighted to appoint the Rev. Dr. Cornelius Van Til to that task.

The CEIR

In 1965 the general assembly renamed its committee dealing with ecumenical matters the Committee on Ecumenicity and Interchurch Relations (CEIR) and assigned it new responsibilities. It is currently composed of nine ministers or elders elected by the general assembly, plus the following ex officio members, without vote: the stated clerk of the general assembly, the general secretaries of the Committee on Foreign Missions and the Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension, and the administrator of the Committee on Diaconal Ministries.

In obedience to our Lord, the CEIR seeks to enter into and to promote closer fellowship with other churches, where it is consistent with biblical unity and truth, as a visible demonstration of the unity we already have in Christ, all to the glory of God. We go about doing this, in part, by recommending the establishment of official ecclesiastical relationships with other churches of like faith and practice, and through nurturing those relationships; by sending fraternal delegates to and receiving them from such churches at our major assemblies; by meeting together to discuss matters of mutual interest or concern; by encouraging our presbyteries to reach out to their counterparts in such churches; and by facilitating cooperation in ministry among the corresponding agencies of such churches.

As defined in its “Rules for Ecclesiastical Relationships,” the OPC’s official ecclesiastical relationships include both bilateral (one-on-one) and ecumenical relationships. Our two categories of bilateral relationships are full ecclesiastical fellowship and corresponding relations (which is our “let’s get to know one another better with a view toward entering into ecclesiastical fellowship in the not-too-distant future” relationship). Our single category of ecumenical relationships is that of ecumenical contact, which applies to all the member churches of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) and the International Council of Reformed Churches (ICRC) with which the OPC does not otherwise have one of the two bilateral relationships.

Currently, we are in ecclesiastical fellowship with twenty-one churches (eight in North America and thirteen overseas); in corresponding relations with twelve churches (two in North America and ten overseas); and in ecumenical contact with fifteen churches (three in North America and twelve overseas)—for a total of forty-eight official ecclesiastical relationships with other churches.

Finally, we simply note in passing that the phrase “churches of like faith and practice” appears several times in our Book of Church Order—for example, receiving a member from another church by letter of transfer—and most of our sessions and presbyteries would deem any church with which the OPC has a relationship of ecclesiastical fellowship, corresponding relations, or ecumenical contact, to be a church of like faith and practice for such purposes. Nevertheless, while our formal ecclesiastical bilateral relationships are limited to confessional churches having Reformed standards and who are of like faith and practice, it is good and appropriate to remember that Christ’s church is indeed broader than the Reformed and Presbyterian world.

Bilateral Relationships

As we explore possibilities for establishing a new bilateral interchurch relationship, in addition to ascertaining which confessional standards have been adopted by the other church, we seek to understand how seriously their officers take their vows of subscription. Affirming that our mutually held confessional standards set the theological and doctrinal “fences,” inside of which there is Christian liberty, and outside of which the elders must ward off false teachings and doctrines, we also seek to understand to what degree those standards are actually reflected in the lives of their congregations—which usually takes some time, depending on the frequency of our contact.

Sometimes, overseas churches reach out to us, and, as we are able, we try to follow up with them to ascertain whether the desired substantial contact is feasible, given current resources. In many parts of the world, churches desiring to remain faithful to the whole counsel of the Word of God often find themselves seemingly alone, with some even facing serious opposition. The OPC remembers what it is like to be small and feel isolated, so part of her ministry to Christ’s visible church is to be an encourager of our brothers and sisters in Christ, walking with them along our mutual pilgrim paths toward our heavenly home where we’ll be gathered around the throne of our Savior. Other times, we encounter an overseas church/federation, perhaps an observer to a meeting of the ICRC or at an ICRC regional conference, to which we find our hearts particularly drawn and, with a measure of intentionality, begin to explore possibilities for developing a substantial relationship. And the stated goal for our foreign missions works includes the establishment of a healthy indigenous, national, confessionally conscious Reformed church “with whom the OPC may have fraternal relations.”

In carrying out our responsibilities that arise out of a bilateral relationship, the CEIR appoints one or more of its members to serve as a liaison to that other church/federation to help keep the CEIR updated on developments in that body. And we endeavor to send a fraternal delegate to the major assembly of an overseas church with which we have either ecclesiastical fellowship or corresponding relations at least once every four years; and to meet with their delegation at the quadrennial meetings of the ICRC. Receiving fraternal greetings from these churches around the world at our own annual general assemblies, as they proclaim and frequently suffer for the name of Christ, is frequently one of the high points of the assembly.

Currently we are cooperating with the PCA in Great Commission Publications; with the URCNA in the Trinity Psalter Hymnal joint venture; with the ARPC, KAPC, KPCA, PCA, RPCNA, and URCNA in the Presbyterian and Reformed Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel. We are also cooperating in foreign missionary labors in Haiti (CanRC, FRCNA, HRC, and PCA), Uganda (ARPC, PCA, and URCNA), Ukraine (PCA), and Uruguay (IPB). Our Committee on Diaconal Ministries has a cooperative agreement with the BPC regarding responding to major disasters.

Sadly, three times in the history of our interchurch relationships we have suffered the heartbreak of having to terminate a bilateral relationship for cause. In 1997 we terminated our relationship of ecclesiastical fellowship with the Christian Reformed Church of North America, having suspended it the year before in the wake of the 1995 decisions of synod to allow women to serve in the offices of elder, minister, and evangelist, and having pled with them “to turn back to the Scripture-based fellowship that has been a blessing in the past.” In 2016 we terminated our relationship of ecclesiastical fellowship with the Reformed Church in Japan following a similar decision by their 2014 General Assembly. And most recently, in 2023, we terminated our relationship of corresponding relations with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (liberated) following similar decisions by their synods in 2017 and 2020 and the termination of their membership in the ICRC in 2022.

Ecumenical Relationships

The OPC is a member church in two ecumenical organizations: North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) and International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC). The basis of NAPARC is “full commitment to the Bible in its entirety as the Word of God written, without error in all its parts, and to its teaching as set forth in the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms,” and that of the ICRC is substantially the same. The purpose of
NAPARC is “to advise, counsel, and cooperate in various matters with one another, and to hold out before each other the desirability and need for organic union of churches that are of like faith and practice” (emphasis added); and that of the ICRC is:

1. to express and promote the unity of faith that the Member Churches have in Christ;
2. to encourage the fullest ecclesiastical fellowship among the Member Churches;
3. to facilitate and promote cooperation among the Member Churches in such areas as missions, theological education, and ministries of mercy;
4. to study the common problems and issues that confront the Member Churches;
5. to present a Reformed testimony to the world. (emphasis added)

At this point, and at the risk of oversimplification, we think that it is especially important to note that neither the ICRC nor NAPARC are “the church” in a governmental or synodical sense and therefore neither has been tasked to “do ministry” or to set up its own ministry agencies itself. Rather, the work of both bodies is to encourage and facilitate their respective member churches’ carrying out the ministries that Christ has entrusted to those churches, as part of his catholic visible church.

NAPARC

NAPARC was constituted in 1975, and the OPC was one of the five constituent churches. Today it has thirteen member churches, who send delegates to meet together annually to pursue its purpose. The fiftieth meeting of NAPARC is scheduled for next year. In addition, NAPARC also sponsors several inter-agency consultations:

Representatives of the appropriate corresponding agencies of the Member Churches (e.g., home missions, world missions, Christian/church education, relief/diaconal ministries, theological training, youth ministries) are encouraged to gather together periodically with their counterparts in the other Member Churches to consult with each other regarding the ministries that have been entrusted to them and to explore ways in which they might cooperate with one another to advance the cause of Christ.

For more than forty years, the general secretaries (or their equivalents) of the world missions agencies of the NAPARC member churches have gathered together, more or less annually, for an informal time of sharing the work of, and of prayer for, the labors of their respective agencies, including new works being planned, opportunities for cooperation, and helpful resources discovered.

ICRC

The ICRC was constituted in the Netherlands in 1982 with nine churches participating. The first quadrennial meeting was held in 1985 with delegates from seven member churches (the OPC sent three observers). The OPC was received as a member church in 1993 and hosted the fifth meeting in Philadelphia in 2001. There are now thirty-eight member churches in the ICRC, including nine who are also member churches in NAPARC. At the last meeting of the ICRC in Namibia in 2022, the OPC delegation was able to have bilateral meetings with our counterparts from fourteen of the overseas member churches of the ICRC and one observer church. Several members of the CEIR are actively involved in different capacities in the work of the ICRC. The 2026 meeting will be hosted by the Kosin Presbyterian Church in Korea.

The ICRC has a similar practice to encourage cooperation in ministry although, while the representatives of the NAPARC ministries agencies are able to gather together annually, the members of the corresponding ICRC agencies, due to the expense of international travel, are able to gather only once every three or four years. However, for the last couple of rounds of meetings, the representatives of both the ICRC and NAPARC world missions agencies have been able to join together for several days of consultations, to which the representatives of the diaconal ministry agencies of both bodies have also been included. The ICRC also has an active Theological Education Committee, which is organizing a conference in Grand Rapids in June 2025 for representatives of member churches and the seminaries they endorse or use. And we’re inclined to think that these gatherings might represent ecumenical interchurch relations at its best.

On the night before he went to the cross, our Savior prayed to his Father for all those whom the Father had given to him “that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23).

The author is administrator of the Committee on Ecumenicity and Interchurch Relations. New Horizons, February 2025.