A New Reformed Church Denomination

Many American religious groups -- especially mainline Protestant denominations -- have experienced schism as a result of internal disagreement about what should be their official stance on LGBTQ issues.  In the last 15 years, the Anglican Church in North America split from the Episcopal Church in 2008, the North American Lutheran Church split from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2010, and ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians split from the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 2012.  In each case, conservative members organized a new denomination so that they would not have to accept policy changes on LGTBQ matters in the parent denomination.

We can now add another denomination to this list:  the Alliance of Reformed Churches split from the Reformed Church in America in 2021.  This split now involves 125 congregations leaving the parent church and trying to join the new group.

Read this article from the Religion News Service for a summary of the situation.  LGTBQ policies take central stage, but there are other factors that are also part of the conversation, including church finances, organizational structure, and growth strategies.

Additional changes are also in the works for the United Methodist Church, though these have been put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  You can see previous blog posts on this topic here and here.

Schism is one type of dynamism in the American religious marketplace.  Members of religious groups must continually negotiate a myriad of contentious issues, and when a satisfying compromise cannot be reached then schism is one possible outcome.