How to Follow General Synod 2024

General Synod is taking place June 13-18, 2024, at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson, Arizona.

This week and into the next, delegates from around the RCA will come together in Tucson, Arizona, for General Synod. They will worship together, fellowship, and deliberate and vote on many things related to the RCA’s ministry. Daily General Synod news roundups will be posted each day at www.rca.org/synod. 

General Synod plenary sessions will be video-streamed with a 30-minute delay. The videostream and a schedule of plenary sessions are posted on the synod homepage, www.rca.org/synod. Keep in mind that Arizona operates on Mountain Standard Time (the equivalent of Pacific Daylight Time). See the schedule for the week.

Worship services at General Synod will also be video-streamed this year. General Synod worship will be led by the RCA’s four racial and ethnic councils. Worship services are held each day during synod, typically first thing in the morning but also on Thursday evening for opening worship and Tuesday morning for closing worship. Worship services will be streamed at www.rca.org/synod. Note that daily morning worship will be streamed with the 30-minute delay, while opening and closing worship will be livestreamed.

Anticipated business

The RCA’s restructuring team completes its work at this year’s General Synod meeting. This ends a multi-year discernment process as the denomination works toward sustained spiritual and organizational health. The team’s final report, published last month, includes ten recommendations that will be voted on at General Synod. The Commission on Church Order is bringing a related recommendation with a significant set of amendments to the Book of Church Order. (Watch this short video from the commission that helps explain the changes.)

The recommendations seek to “re-focus” the RCA, specifically further empowering the local church, simplifying governing models, reducing overhead, and re-establishing equity and trust. The team’s recommendations are related to a new structure that will best support the RCA as a both/and space where there’s room for people to hold different opinions and remain together in the denomination; hence, the restructuring team is not bringing any recommendations related to human sexuality.

Each of the restructuring team’s recommendations will be voted on separately. Some of the recommendations propose actual amendments that would begin the constitutional change process immediately, while others call for changes to Book of Church Order language to be worked on and brought before a future General Synod for consideration.

The restructuring team’s report will be presented Friday morning, with discussion and voting taking place Friday evening and Saturday morning. Watch the video-stream here.

Synod will also consider recommendations from its commissions, boards, and agencies. For the full agenda of General Synod, see the General Synod Workbook.

What is General Synod?

General Synod is both an event and a body of people. The event is a once-a-year gathering that shapes the direction of the denomination. The body of people who gather for the annual event make up one of the four assemblies of the Reformed Church in America (RCA).

Assemblies are the four levels of RCA government: consistory, classis, regional synod, General Synod. The Book of Church Order calls the General Synod the RCA’s “highest assembly and judicatory,” but “highest” doesn’t mean most important or that it’s the final authority; each assembly has authority over different things. General Synod’s authority is broadest, while the classis is the assembly with the greatest number of responsibilities.

Following the example of the early church, the RCA believes that decisions should be made by gathering people together to discern the will of God. Because the whole church cannot meet together at one time and place to make decisions, governing bodies made of those who hold an office within the church carry out the work of the church at various levels.

The RCA has a presbyterian government. Those who hold an ordained church office serve on governing bodies that oversee different levels of ministry within the denomination. But unlike in a political democracy, those in church office do not represent the will of the people; they represent the will of Christ.

The General Synod is primarily made up of elders and ministers, sent from classes and regions as voting delegates. It also includes corresponding delegates—who can speak to issues on the floor but can’t vote, make motions, or hold office—who represent boards, commissions, and others within the RCA.

At synod, these delegates work, worship, pray, and fellowship together for the better part of a week. The rest of the year, the General Synod functions through the General Synod Council, commissions, and agencies of the RCA.