Calvin University leaders released a report late last week detailing a long-anticipated update on how the school will handle faculty disagreement with certain positions of the university’s parent denomination, the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) – including those on infant baptism, predestination, and sexuality.
If approved by Synod 2025, the report would closely align Calvin’s process for expressing disagreement with a point of the denomination’s confessions with that of the CRCNA – and introduce time constraints on disagreement.
Although the university plans to retain faculty to have already filed their disagreement through the appropriate channels, the report raises questions about how faculty will balance their personal beliefs with denominational stances. It also suggests that there will be increased scrutiny from the university on how all employees interact with denominational beliefs. “Calvin University expects all employees and trustees to align personal and professional conduct with denominational standards and synodical interpretations,” the report states.
Much of the report is dedicated to explaining changes to the confessional-difficulty gravamen – an official means for a faculty member or a church officebearer to express a difficulty with some point of the CRCNA’s confessions. Common points of difficulty include infant baptism, predestination, or the denomination’s prohibition on same-sex relationships. In the past, the confessional-difficulty gravamen, if accepted, would allow the faculty member or officebearer to remain in their position indefinitely.
The gravamen process for both the university and the denomination came under more scrutiny after Synod 2022, which affirmed that the CRCNA’s position that homosexual sex is sin had confessional status. This prompted a number of Calvin faculty to file gravamina expressing their disagreement with the denomination’s stance.
At Synod 2024, the denomination voted that the gravamen process for church officebearers would require officebearers to resolve their difficulty – or leave their position – within three years. It also ordered denominational institutions – such as Calvin – to “review and revise” their own processes for disagreement. As a result, some churches chose to begin the process of leaving the denomination.
The report outlines Calvin’s plan to bring faculty into closer alignment with current denominational stances and procedures. The university will introduce a three-year period of “mentoring and development” for new faculty to ensure they understand the views of the CRCNA. After this three-year period, all faculty must reaffirm their commitment to the CRCNA’s confessional positions every year. Faculty who disagree with an aspect of the confessions must participate in a three-year process aimed at bringing them into alignment with official CRCNA doctrine.
Going forward, the report emphasizes that confessional difficulties will be considered as “two- to three-year periods of discernment and mentoring.” Some faculty who have been at Calvin for at least six years may be granted “indefinite exceptions” after a “period of discernment and mentoring;” “There will be a high bar for approval of confessional exceptions, which will need to exhibit biblical and Reformed rationales,” the report states.
According to the report, the “university is expected to uphold previously approved gravamina;” However, all “faculty are expected to self-report any differences they have with the confessions.”
Additionally, faculty applying for new gravamina must write their own, rather than relying on templates.
“The university’s priorities in this process have included honoring the significance of the deep and enduring covenantal partnership between the CRCNA and Calvin,” said Elzinga in his email to faculty and staff. “This includes aligning our framework for confessional subscription with that of the CRCNA, [while] respecting the distinct spheres and roles of the church and the university.”
Synod 2025 will meet at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada from June 13-19.
