Église réformée du Québec (ERQ) -- 2008 Report to World Reformed Fellowship

Greetings, in the name of our risen and victorious Lord,

The year of our Lord 2008 marks the 20th anniversary celebrations of the ERQ. We shall, Lord willing, celebrate this mile stone on Saturday, November 1st in Quebec City. 

We began with a dream to preach the full council of God and to plant Reformed churches throughout the province. Twenty years later, we realise that we are fewer in number – only five small congregations. Nonetheless, we want to celebrate the Lord’s faithfulness and to thank him for preserving a Reformed confessional witness in the province of Québec. We also desire to cast a vision for the future, persevering in the work of making disciples of all nations, including the people of Quebec. We covet your prayers as we continue to fulfil this divine mission.

During the past year, the ERQ synod has made two significant decisions. A liturgy for the baptism of covenant children was adopted unanimously in March 2008. (The French text, as well as an English translation, is available upon request.)

The November 2007 and June 2008 synods dealt extensively with the administration of the Lord’s Supper, particularly to guests. At the request of the November synod a report was prepared explaining the various practices of the PCA, OPC, URCNA and CanRC. A Ministerial Committee report declaring that a verbal instruction and warning from the pulpit was not sufficient for supervising the Lord’s Table, and recommending that the elders must meet with visitors or receive a letter of recommendation before admitting them, was defeated by a significant majority. Two motions recommending that each local session determine how to administer the Lord’s Supper were also defeated by majority. For the moment, no further motion or mandate is before the synod.

With respect to inter-church relations, we rejoiced to receive fraternal delegates from Canadian Reformed Churches at the March 2008 synod. For the first time, the ERQ sent a fraternal delegate to the PCA General Assembly in Houston, Texas. We’re thankful for this developing relationship. The ERQ Interchurch Committee is committed to attending one synod or general assembly per year of the four denominations with which we have some level of contact, namely the CanRC, URCNA, PCA and OPC. We would be glad to welcome your fraternal delegates to address our assemblies.

On the local church level, we rejoice that the Église chrétienne réformée de Beauce could purchase of a vacated Baptist church building. The congregation also ordained its first two deacons.

We can also report that the Lord has blessed the various activities related to the Quebec 400 project of the Église réformée St-Marc de Québec. The exhibit concerning the Huguenots of New France has been well received by many. In fact, the museum recently announced that the exhibit will continue until October 2009, seven months longer than initially scheduled. We would like to thank NAPARC as well as several local congregations who have contributed financially to this project. Please continue to pray that the Lord would use this open door to make know the Reformed faith in Quebec City and throughout the province.

In his service,

Ben Westerveld
for the Interchurch Committee of the ERQ

Interchurch Committee
Église réformée du Québec
c/o Bernard Westerveld
844, rue de Contrecoeur
Quebec (Quebec) CANADA
g1x 2x8
(418) 659-7943
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