Brother Maurice VanTil
2989 265A Street
Aldergrove, BC
V4W 3B6

9 January 2007

Regarding: correspondence dated 14 October 2006 and 6 November 2006.

Dear Brother VanTil,

We acknowledge that that these are two of a series of letters from yourself calling the consistory of the Canadian Reformed Church at Aldergrove to denounce decisions made by previous Synods, and to liberate from the federation of Canadian Reformed Churches.

We recognize that there will be a variety of opinions both within our congregation as well as within our federation. We also acknowledge the 'reformation principle' that we cannot stand still. Rather we must, humbly, continually grow spiritually and reform, both at a personal and corporate level. Federatively, this is reflected in our commitment to continue to seek fellow subjects of Christ church gathering work, where this includes unity with other federations including the United Reformed Churches. This is well documented in the Acts of Synod Chatham 2004. We encourage you to read through them and it is our hope and prayer that you will continue to be part of this on-going reformation and gathering work of our Lord as well.

Regarding your letter of October 14, 2006:

In your letter you request the following: "I request that you consider the Lynden consistory's refusal to abide by the Word of God, our confessions, and the Church Order. Specifically, I request that you recognize the legitimacy of the secession that has occurred in Lynden and rescind your approval and implementation of all synodical decisions to establish and confirm ecclesiastical fellowship with the OPC, PCK, FCS, RCUS and the URC. Moreover, I request that you determine that the Canadian Reformed Churches acted contrary to the Word of God by establishing unity with these churches without properly testing the spirits and without upholding all of our confessions."

We consider that the Lynden consistory has acted in accordance with the Word of God, our confessions, and the Church Order, and deny your request that we recognize the legitimacy of the secession in Lynden. We again re-iterate that Aldergrove Council and Consistory concur with Synod decisions regarding unity with the enumerated federations, and are not prepared to accede to your requests. Being careful not to be a hindrance to Christ' church gathering work, we prayerfully commend this direction to God and ask for His blessing upon unity discussions.

Regarding your letter of November 06 and, at your request, in further response to your letter of April 21 2006.

In your letter of the 21 April 2006, you ask the consistory to make the following determinations:

1. Based on the above considerations the decisions of general synods Neerlandia and Chatham to extend ecclesiastical fellowship (or sister church relations) with the URC are in conflict with the Word of God and the church order, and therefore Aldergrove consistory must liberate itself from these decisions.
2. Considering the URC failure to properly administer the keys of the kingdom, calling a minister from and engaging in pulpit exchanges with the URC would be most inappropriate.

With respect to request number 1, you assume in your opinion that you have "proven these decisions to be in conflict with the Word of God and the Church Order." (Consideration 4, letter dated November 6, 2006). As we stated in our response to you in our letter dated the 10 July 2006, we as Aldergrove Canadian Reformed Church have made a decision to support the decisions from these major assemblies as we believe they do not conflict with the Word of God and the church order. We reiterate that we believe the URC to be a Faithful and True church federation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which properly administer the keys of the kingdom in a faithful manner. We therefore we will not accede to your request for us to liberate ourselves from these decisions.

In order to show that the URC is a faithful reforming federation of churches, we urged you to read and study the Acts of their Synod, so that you may better acquaint yourself with their committed faithfulness. In addition to what you may read in their Acts of Synod, we refer you to the Press Release of the Combined committees of the Canadian Reformed Churches to propose a common church order held August 22-24, 2006 at the United Reformed Church of Dutton, MI (Clarion, October 27 2006 page 539): "the Consistory shall supervise participation at the Lord's Supper. To that end the consistory shall admit to the Lord's Supper only those members who have made profession of the Reformed faith and lead a godly life." We realize these discussions are on-going, but we feel this committee is headed in the right direction.

We again would like to re-iterate that if you feel the decisions of general synod Neerlandia and Chatham are in conflict with the Word of God or with the Church Order, you should be appealing those decisions to the major ecclesiastical assembly or accept them as settle and binding and live in obedience to them in the congregation where you are a member.

With respect to your consideration 4, in your letter dated 6 November 2006, where you complain that we are denying you the right of appeal under Article 31 of the church order, brother, this is absolutely not true. Because we do not accept your position / arguments that previous synods decisions are in conflict with the Word of God or with the Church Order and we DO accept these decisions as conforming to the Word of God or with the Church Order, it is not up to us to respond what is written in the Acts of these Synods BUT it is up to you to prove they are in conflict with the Word of God or with the Church Order and then to exercise your right under Article 31 Church Order and make the necessary appeals.

Closing:

The consistory also wishes to remind you of the following outstanding issue which remain to be dealt with.

From your October 4 2004 letter: "By not implementing the recommendations of General Synod Chatham, the members of the consistory are not living up to their subscription form vows, and are guilty of sin against the third commandment."

Consistory response. Nov 15th 2004:
"Regarding the matter of the Form of Subscription which you raised in your letter of Oct 4, consistory's arguments as above concerning Aldergrove's right of appeal will serve as the basic answer. We believe Synod Chatham's decision runs contrary to the Word of God and for that reason we are appealing it. In doing so we are precisely maintaining confessional integrity, and not, as you state, "failing to live up to (our) subscription form vows. Our greatest desire is to live in accordance with the Word of God, summarized in the confessions. With this in view, your accusations that members of the consistory are not living up to their subscription form vows and are guilty of sinning against the third commandment provide no Scriptural or Confessional backing. We strongly insist that you retract these unfounded allegations." To date, we have not received a retraction.

In addition, we would like to mention that we are deeply concerned in the manner and frequency of your letter writing with respect to these and other issues. In addition we are deeply concerned when you make comments as, "Consistory must therefore liberate itself from these sinful general synod decisions", "Consistory's actions are worse than …", "when I have proven ..." This type of letter writing leaves an 'arrogant aroma' and shows little humility on your behalf.

It saddens us greatly brother VanTil that you accuse us of going down a "path of disobedience". It is our hope and prayer that you also will choose the path of obedience and accept these decisions as settled and binding unless you can prove them to be in conflict with the Word of God or with the Church Order and proceed with the Church orderly way and make your appeal to the major ecclesiastical assembly. To do otherwise will only be evidence that you are choosing a path of disobedience.

Brother, we consider this matter closed, and ask that you prayerfully consider the direction of your letter writing and interpretation of the material presented; always comparing everything we do and say with God's Holy Word. We wish you the Lord's guiding hand in His gathering church work.

With brotherly greetings
On behalf of Council,

Br. C. Dehaas - Corresponding secretary

Br. Chris Hoff - elder