Council of Reformed and Presbyterian churches celebrates 50 years

What will celebrations include? The evening will include prayer, a keynote address by Chad Van Dixhoorn of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and corporate psalm singing. Psalm singing is a hallmark of Reformed churches, and in recent years, new Psalter Hymnals have resulted from collaborations between NAPARC members. For instance, the Trinity Psalter Hymnal published in 2018 by Great Commission Publications was a project of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and United Reformed Churches. On Wednesday night, the churchmen will sing from The Books of Psalms for Worship, which is published by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. 

The Psalms are “the common hymnal of all Christians that we have in the Bible itself,” Bruce Parnell, the outgoing chairman of the NAPARC, told WORLD.

How have NAPARC members collaborated theologically? Recently, two NAPARC denominations have denounced teaching of kinism, or so-called race realism, which Parnell said has become more prevalent recently. 

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, or ARPC, synod earlier this year sustained a resolution condemning “any theological or political teaching which posits a superiority of race or ethnic identity born of immutable human characteristics.” The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America later followed suit, commending the ARPC’s resolution. The ARPC also appointed a study group to further look into it and equip churches to counter it.

Kinism teaches that the races should be kept separate in so-called racially pure religio-ethnic states, according to a publication of the Christian Reformed Church, a former NAPARC  member denomination whose 2019 synod declared kinism to be a heresy.  

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report on research that found U.S. evangelicals had a lack of understanding of gospel truths.