Corresponding Church
Establishing Corresponding Church Relations
Biblical ecumenically requires that within the believing church, we get to know one another. For the Reformed Church in the United States, the first step in that process is to establish Corresponding Church relations. Corresponding Churches agree to exchange information as noted below, but in particular to encourage the respective bodies to pray for one another’s ministry. For further information, contact corresponding@rcus.org.
The purpose of establishing a Correspondence Relationship is to intentionally engage with a core group, individual church, group of churches or denomination in the process of exploring potential doctrinal and ecclesiastical similarities and differences.
The elements of a Correspondence Relationship include:
• Establishing a personal point of contact on behalf of the RCUS and the church.
• Committing to occasional communication between the respective points of contact.
• As able, inviting a representative from the church to attend Classis and/or Synod as a visitor, without the
privilege of the floor.
• As able, offering to send a representative of the RCUS to attend an ecclesiastical meeting of the church.
• Sharing RCUS Synod and/or Classis Abstracts with the point of contact.
• Receiving public minutes of ecclesiastical meetings from the church.