A couple things recently have put me in mind of the late Peter Borgdorff. He was the first Executive Director of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), and he was a remarkable man, courageous and strong, shrewd but with integrity, insightful and deeply devout.
I thought of him as I observed the recent Synod of the CRC. The leaders ignored and thereby violated the Judicial Code in their Church Order in their application of “discipline.” They invented new sanctions on the spot, and prejudged people guilty without benefit of hearings or trials or the chance to defend themselves. “Peter Borgdorff would never have allowed that,” I thought.
I first met Peter fifteen years ago, in South Africa. We were both delegated to a consultation on the Accra Confession by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). WARC was merging with the Reformed Ecumenical Synod (RES) and evolving into the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). Peter was a force behind the merger and the evolution. His commitment to both ecumenism and public justice as expressions of the Gospel was absolute.
Which is why he was at the consultation — because “Accra” was about the church’s prophetic response to international economic injustice. For a week in close quarters I watched Peter operate. At plenary sessions he usually sat quietly, but when he spoke everybody listened. It was usually to break an impasse or move the business ahead. In our North American subgroup I watched him design a strategy for bringing the business to our respective denominations. He learned all of our names.
At happy hour, as he smoked his pipe, he offered commentary on the day just past. He entertained us with background stories, and offered gentle advice to headstrong rookies (me) — always with that wry Dutch immigrant sense of humor that I love. It was during this week that I learned of Peter’s attachment to the Belhar Confession.
A few months earlier the Reformed Church in America (my denomination) had adopted Belhar as a fourth Doctrinal Standard. For me this was the culmination of twenty-four years of advocacy. At the General Synod of 1985, as a headstrong rookie delegate, I dared to raise “New Business” in order to put the Belhar Confession on the floor as a new Doctrinal Standard. Synod’s officers indulged me. It was referred to a Commission for study, and then it was disseminated, and that was that. Then, for a decade I felt like the lone voice for Belhar in the RCA. But when the time was ripe, some South African fraternal delegates to Synod put it back on the table, and that led to its eventual adoption by the RCA. But not without opposition.
The CRC was looking at Belhar too, and Peter was its advocate. As Chris Meehan remembered in May of 2018, “Borgdorff spent many hours meeting with people, speaking to groups, and doing all that he could to convince church leaders to adopt the Belhar Confession as a fourth confession of the CRC. The Belhar labels racism a sin and calls for God’s people to eradicate it.”
In the CRC, however, the opposition prevailed. The Synod of 2017 rejected the Belhar Confession. It was given the status of a “Contemporary Testimony” — which has no teeth. Chris Meehan quoted Joel Boot as saying, “I only saw Peter cry twice, once when his son died [in a car accident], and then when the Belhar was defeated.”
Would that decision prove to be a watershed?
- What if the CRC had come to value Belhar’s “unity, reconciliation, and justice” as much as Heidelberg Q&A 108?*
- What if the CRC Synod of 2024 regarded “the unity of the church” as both “gift and obligation,” as Belhar states?
Was Peter crying prophetically for his beloved denomination rejecting an open future, and instead choosing a closed one? Was he grieving that the CRC was choosing against both ecumenism and justice as Gospel imperatives? Was Peter grieving what would eventually show itself in 2024?
Peter’s intimacy with the Belhar came through in one of his devotionals in Today magazine. He wrote, “The unity of the church globally and for all ages is rooted in the fact that together all Christians form one body and confess the same Lord.” You might recognize here the language of Belhar. For Belhar, unity is quite simply Christ-centered, and therefore objective — rooted in Christ. But for the 2024 Synod unity depends on mutual “covenant obligations,” which is, ironically, human-centered and subjective. The CRC is becoming its own independent source of truth.
I last saw Peter in 2014 in Pella, Iowa. The RCA and the CRC were holding their historic concurrent synods, and Peter gave the final sermon in that huge Vermeer warehouse. It was a triumph for both Peter and Wes Granberg-Michaelson of the RCA, his colleague and friend. It may turn out to have been the high-water mark of RCA and CRC relations, and Peter must be honored as a “compelling force” behind it.
What first put me in mind of Peter was Trish Borgdorff’s powerful speech at the 2024 Synod. She spoke for many, and I think she spoke for Peter Borgdorff too.
*Q&A 108, the Heidelberg Catechism
What does the seventh commandment teach us?
That God condemns all unchastity,
and that therefore we should thoroughly detest it
and live decent and chaste lives,
within or outside of the holy state of marriage.
For so many this remains an orthodoxy-over-unity question. It has also progressed to a means-to-an- end justification. Fighting and dividing is in our Reformed DNA. ” Let us just hurry up with the divide so we can get on with ‘real ministry.’ ” This statement is acceptable to many.
Thanks Daniel. Many golden nuggets here.
Thanks pastor, good thoughts. I too was a friend of Peter and I challenged his assertion that we are a “confessional church”, one he repeated in his travels promoting the Belhar. My argument was simple, everything good in the Belhar is first of all in Amos, Micah, and John 17; if we preached the Bible we would arrive at the same place. In theory I should have heard a sermon every year on each Lord’s Day but would be an exception if I heard teaching on Amos or Micah within ten years. Peter and I end up at the same place, but I lean toward Biblical knowledge above historic documents.
Fair enough, but if you look at Protestant history, by far most of those churches that avoid creeds and confessions in the name of Bible only soon become servants of the thought-fashions of the age. Look at the Southern Baptists and other fundamentalist, and do they arrive at the same place from Amos and Micah? I would expect that most of the Christian Right regard themselves as Bible only.
That too is a legitimate point. I like the story of the Rekabites in Jeremiah 35, I think the big point of the story is that the people listened to great grandpa Rekab, but not to God. I lament that too many people seem to hold confessions much closer than the clear teachings of Scripture, because they do not know Scripture.
Thank you, Daniel. I got to know Peter quite well through my association with the WCRC Executive Committee (and as a frequent RCA “fraternal” guest at the CRC Synod). He was instrumental in bringing the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council together as the World Communion of Reformed Churches in 2010 (which adopted the focus statement “Called to Communion, Committed to Justice”), and he remained on the Executive Committee as an advisor. Peter seldom spoke in the EC, but when he did, his words were wise and compelling. I can only imagine what he would say now in that context of commitment to justice, given the actions taken at Synod 2024.
Thanks for the the reminder of what visionary leadership the CRCNA once enjoyed — and from a man who often gave the initial impression of being a stuffy bureaucrat and a crusty old Dutch immigrant. But the light of the Gospel’s message of building a beloved community shone in his words and actions. He is missed today.
The CRC once upon a time teemed with pastoral and scholarly leaders like Peter. Those were heady and halcyon days.
Thanks, Daniel, for this eloquent tribute to Peter and defense of the Belhar Confession. It was a sad day for me when my denomination rejected it. These last few years have been even sadder, as wise leaders like him were replaced by legalistic and judgmental Pharisees, who have high-jacked my church of 89 years.
Thank you, Daniel, for this honest remembrance of Peter. When I was chair of CRC-Canada Board of Trustees, I heard Peter say more than once, “My biggest fear for the CRC is that it will turn every more fundamentalist. That prophetic fear has become true, not just in the last three synods, but gradually and inescapably through the Church Order lawlessness of the very brothers (and a few sisters) who have been so insistent on “following the rules.” Sad days. But thanks, Peter, for more than one prophetic word, though that was the saddest.
I beg to offer a dissenting view, with all respect to the memory of Peter Borgdorff and to the author. In respect to unity, please remember that we must not merely look at our North American context, but to the worldwide Church (and the Church through history). It is aligning with the large majority Christian witnesses throughout the Christian church and within our ecclesiastical partnerships to adhere to the understanding that homosexual practice is a sexual sin. Friends, we are cutting categories where there is not a need! The author asks, “Was Peter crying prophetically for his beloved denomination rejecting an open future, and instead choosing a closed one?” It is fair to hope for the Belhar’s confessional status as Borgdorff did, but I was taught that we must do our part to teach and respect that witness, as it was not dropped but was placed in a new category. I respect and value the status of Contemporary Testimony (and teach from the Belhar), so I disagree that the title has “no teeth” as one commenter suggests. The openness of our denomination is still up to us, as we listen to the Holy Spirit at work.
Ah, but did you ever notice that the Belhar is not included in the covenant for office bearers though the other contemporary testimony, Our World Belongs to God is? The rhetoric around the Belhar and its lack of appearance in the Covenant suggests it is in reality optional. I’m glad that you have chosen to use it, few do.
Peter is my dad so this was a tender thing to wake up to this morning. Thanks for remembering him – he would have liked that. We got a puppy shortly after his death and named her Belhar (Bella) in his honor. I have thought a lot about him and his grief when it was not given confessional status since Synod 2024. His comments about that Synod definitely foreshadow where we are today. I wish he was here to offer some wisdom and I’m glad he didn’t have to witness this miserable process. I think he would have found hope in what will be next for those still committed to an inclusive and justice-seeking church. Thanks again for honoring him honestly and well – I recognized him in what you wrote.
Suzi I can’t help but think if his leadership continued till this day, synod 2024 would not have played out as it did.
Well, that’s a high honor.
I recognized him too! Although the comment about a ‘stuffy bureaucrat and crusty Dutch Immigrant’ made me smile. It is strange to read about him and I am just beginning to realize who he was outside of our dad. I miss him and his peers. He and our mom raised us in grace and love. I would love to see the CRC return to that.
I loved your dad, Suzi…and I love your dog’s name! I concur with those who said things might have gone differently if he were still here in 2024, but I suspect things have gone past that by now. God bless you and your family!
Thanks for this beautiful remembrance of my dear friend Peter Borgdorff. You describe his values and leadership style to a tee. I would add that he deeply loved the church and trusted the institution (synod) to eventually get it right and in the meantime to be under God’s sovereign rule. He could deeply respect and challenge synod at the same time. I miss him terribly and love his family.
As to your wondering whether the Belhar’s call to unity as a fourth confession would have saved the CRC from the ecclesiastical massacre otherwise known as Synod 2024, I doubt it. Something far more reptilian is going on in the church and culture today. Our deep fears of “the other” — and there are many “others” we fear, enough to possibly reelect a madman to be president of the US — have fractured this small denomination almost beyond recognition.
I do catch myself wondering what Peter would think about all of this. And John Kromminga, William Spoelhof, Andy Bandstra, and Clarence Vos, to mention only a few of my Neland parishioners back in the 90s. But it’s too painful for me to linger there long. Lord, have mercy.
I’m where you are, Duane…including precious memories of teachers of the past. Some of them actually marched beside us for civil rights and against our nation’s warmongering.
Thank you Daniel.
Thank you Trish.
Peter had vision and compassion for the church world wide. We miss that because of the strangle hold of a few. That has an effect on giving and that in turn affects the mission, the vision and compassion we have for God’s children all over this world.
Thank you, Daniel.
Such powerful insights.
Thank you for remembering Peter as so many of us do, for so many good things and memories. Like remembering his smile and laugh and sense of humor and his timely spoken wisdom. And for his bus-driving skills; including chauffeuring so many students to so many places, including Sem. Choir members on another tour. He blessed me and so many others…
Thank you so much, Daniel…for this reflection on my dear friend, Peter, and the Belhar. I first met Peter in 1962 at a “Young Calvinist Convention” in Kalamazoo, MI [surely they don’t have those anymore…I hope] where I was a speech contestant. (He from Canada and I from Iowa) A group of attendees were milling around a park when this guy (Peter) steps onto some wooden crate lying around and delivers a speech which actually gathered passersby. I’m thinking, “this guy’s nuts” when he steps off and motions me to step up. I did. We were both nuts…and heading off to Calvin in the fall. We became lifelong friends, briefly a part of the same Classis, then he to head the home missions effort, and then the denomination. We met at conferences, synods, and “Canadian Bible studies.” In my decades-long ministry in South-Central Los Angeles, whenever he had a lay-over at LAX, he’d alert me and we would meet somewhere. On one occasion I cannot forget, we were discussing race relations and I commented, “Can you believe us? Sometimes our jobs require you to tighten the wagons, and me to breach them wherever I can.” We looked each other in the eye and our four-hand grip across the table accidentally spilled some of our “liquid.” Peter was an ally, and we both wept when the Belhar went down.
Thank you for this story! He met my mom at one of those conventions too!
I did not know or ever meet Peter prior to this article, Daniel. But now I feel I have. His faithfulness and wisdom are sorely missed in these times. The shortsighted and legalistic views of some only demonstrates the fear which seems to prevail in so many circles. We can trust, though with some difficulty, the hopefulness and the “fear nots” our Lord proclaims. Thank you for this article.
Amen and amen.
What can I say? Peter left us more than six years ago and, even though he shows up in so many different ways at surprising times. Today, reading the words Daniel Meeter wrote for the RJ blog, totally brought him back to me. And there was so much more to Peter than his work for the church, but I can attest to the fact that it took up a lot of his living. And I got to share in it and all his experiences helped us grow to be where we are today. Thank you for the blog and all who responded with such good words!
Janet, I am humbled. You are most welcome. It was a privilege for me to write this. By the way, I am a Jersey boy, born in Paterson in 1953. When I see “Kuperus,” I think dairy farms in Sussex and Newton and Belvidere. I knew a Harry Kuperus when I attended Sherman Street during my college days. And Cindy, who taught at Mustard Seed in Hoboken, was much in my admiration.
Me too. Paterson and many visits to your farm with your sister. I remember Peter also.
Daniel, I so much appreciate your words and memories of Peter. We have lived life without him for a little over six years, and yet his presence is very much alive in our family, He shows up at surprising moments. And none as surprising as your blog, remembering the Belhar. It brings it all back, his work and his love for the church. There was more to his world, to be sure, but I can attest to the fact that the church took up a lot of his life and it made out boundaries expand as well, to where we are today. The responses touch me deeply as well. He was blessed by knowing all of you and I was as well.