Three things stand out about this year’s RPCNA Synod, and they are all the same thing. Synod has a few purposes, but a basic one is serving as the denomination’s “highest court.” Every year decisions have to be made that have come from, or through, a presbytery.

This year, in three of those cases, there was reconciliation. One was resolved by the parties reconciling just before Synod began. In two other cases, parties got together with the assistance of Synod. There were specific apologies made, and clear forgiveness was granted. In the last two cases, there are people involved who weren’t at the Synod; so more work is needed.

But this was highly encouraging. Imagine if a significant percentage of cases going to civil courts ended in reconciliation—not in judgment or even in settlement but in true reconciliation. That requires a winsome spirit in the participants, and a willingness to give up some things that are costly to release. If this Synod sets an example for future church disputes, may God be praised.

Decades ago I listened to Synod try to resolve a case that had resulted in church fracture and years of legal wrangling. It had all started with the attitude one person had brought to a church meeting. I couldn’t help but wonder how things would have changed, how many hours would have been redeemed, how many people’s lives blessed, if one or more people had, then and there, stopped to pray (perhaps silently) and chosen a different path.

In the 1990s, the RPCNA Synod, OPC Synod, and others procured training in biblical peacemaking in order to improve their work as elders and shepherds. There is not enough time in a year, much less four days of Synod, to handle all the disputes that could be brought to the church courts. Not only the shepherds, but every member in Christ’s church, need to ponder what is meant by Jesus’s words, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

This year’s Synod was held at the denomination’s college, Geneva College, and the campus was beautiful. With sunny skies and pleasant temperatures, the campus seemed more like a vacation destination than a meeting place.

I’ve previously shared how, as a non-RP student there, I was refreshed by professors who taught and lived a Reformed perspective. They changed my life. The campus was smaller then, with fewer amenities and more soot from the old steel mills and coke works. A busy road ran through the campus.

The externals are so much better now, but the internals are better too. As an alumnus, I’m thrilled to see this generation build on the work of previous generations. Reformed teaching echoes through the classrooms, and psalms sung joyfully resound in the chapel services. One RP pastor at Synod thanked the college for the full-orbed education his recently graduated daughter received there. We can be thankful to God that Geneva’s light on the hill shines bright.