RCA drops magazines, adopts apartheid-era confession

HOLLAND, Mich. (RNS) Just as major mainstream print publications struggle to forge their way into the digital age, so will the magazines of the 166,000-member Reformed Church in America. Two years after scrapping a denominational subsidy for The Church Herald, the RCA General Synod that met here through Tuesday (June 9) voted 171-56 to cease […]

HOLLAND, Mich. (RNS) Just as major mainstream print publications struggle to forge their way into the digital age, so will the magazines of the 166,000-member Reformed Church in America.

Two years after scrapping a denominational subsidy for The Church Herald, the RCA General Synod that met here through Tuesday (June 9) voted 171-56 to cease the monthly magazine that has suffered a sharp decline in subscriptions.

Church and Herald leaders now will work within an existing $240,000 budget to create a new publication that could be primarily online. An open blog and increased online social networking figure to be prominent aspects.


The Herald, prized by supporters for its editorial independence, in 1992 was given a subsidy to fund distribution to every RCA member household. But that was stopped in 2008 to cut costs and use some of the money to start RCA Today, a new magazine published three times per year to promote the church’s growth goals.

Since losing the subsidy, Herald subscriptions have fallen below 20,000 and the magazine was forecast to go broke by the end of the year.

“The subscriptions tell a very powerful story that it’s time to move forward,” said the Rev. Joel Plantinga, a pastor from California.

Also at the synod, the RCA voted to adopt the Belhar Confession as a “standard of unity,” after 24 years of considering it. Written in 1982, during apartheid, by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, a black denomination in South Africa, the confession “affirms the truth of the gospel in the face of terrible oppression.”

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