In Scottsdale, Arizona, New Hope Reformed Church has decided to call the Rev. Susan Schubert as its pastor. Now that process can proceed easily for both the classis, which must approve the call, as well as for the local Lutheran synod. Ministry for this RCA congregation will be strengthened because of the agreement celebrated in Chicago. Local mission is being strengthened by full communion. In Tanzania, RCA volunteer Jay Harsevoort has been appointed jointly with the ELCA to a two-year teaching assignment.
Full communion expands our opportunities for cooperative global mission.
Last summer I was fishing in the Madison River in Montana. Downstream, the Gallatin and the Jefferson join with the Madison, forming the Missouri River. Fed by countless other rivers and streams, the Missouri's waters join the Mississippi at St. Louis, and then flow to the Gulf of Mexico. It's a helpful ecumenical picture. We in the RCA wade in our own stream with its particular history and tradition-bends and rapids that have shaped our course.