Classis began with Jake Ellens of Hope CRC - Brantford - inviting us into scripture and into the doors of their church. Late into the evening, doors continued opening and closing before Classis; we crossed the thresholds of various ministries; we welcomed and we said farewell.

Jake highlighted for Classis the product of Hope CRC's deep self-examination over the last several years through processes such as Natural Church Development by Christian Swartz and for their Youth program, Compass 21. Weaknesses were identified and addressed. One area of weakness they discovered, passionate spirituality, turned the leadership to endorse a deeper focus on prayer ministry in the church. Since re-visioning the youth program and installing a gifted Youth Director, their youth group attendance has tripled in the last 3 years to about 65 youth.

The first major item of the day was the examination of Candidate Martin Dam for ordination and installation at Maranatha CRC in York. The practica portion of the exam (practice of pastoral care and personal spiritual growth) was conducted by Rev. Andrew Zantingh. All were enriched and encouraged to hear how different people in different settings deeply impacted his call to ministry such as Martin's upbringing in a Christian family and the challenges given by a high school principal and a professor at Dordt College. Martin showed himself as easy-going and well received by youth and older members alike. Gordon Pols led Martin through the theological examination asking him to comment on topics such as the relevance of the catechism, his views of the purpose of the church, as well as challenging current issues such as the salvation of those who have not heard the gospel. Rev. Siebert Van Houten and John Bouwers also presented their report on three written sermons and the worship service conducted the previous Sunday morning. After a brief executive session, Classis voted unanimously to support his ordination as a minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Christian Reformed Church in North America. A prayer of thanksgiving, as well as some foot powder, was offered by the Chair of Classis.

A number of substantial verbal reports were presented by Salem (Al Driese), the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (John De Groot - ending some 10 years in this position), and Christian Reformed World Missions (involving a litany comparing a possibility, project, program, priority, purpose or passion driven vision for mission church; there are 48 free world missions videos available to raise the mission passion of your church). The representative for CRC Publications described the current state of change in money saving decision making at CRC Pubs. Possibilities include bringing printing to the open market and/or nearer to the source of use (i.e. printing Spanish language books in Columbia).

Classis struggled with the sudden Board of Trustees decision to end the position of Canadian Director of Chaplaincy (Rev. Siebert Van Houten will leave next Friday from that position) and decided to send a letter of protest against this decision.

Approval was given to a number of committee motions such as the mandate of the newly formed finance committee, the budget of the Student Fund Committee, and the revised mandate of the Classis Hamilton Home Missions Committee.

Along with being a day to welcome a new pastor, it was also a day to bid farewell to two others. Reverend Marvin Van Donselaar will, after some 6 months of Sabbatical, officially complete some 13 years as Pastor of Dundas CRC. Reverend Ray Vander Kooij will, after 9 years at Simcoe CRC, be moving to become the pastor of the Acton congregation. We wish both of them God's continued grace and peace in this new chapter of their lives.
 
Next meeting of Classis is on September 23, 2003 in Burlington CRC.

......Humbly submitted by reporter Pastor John Bouwers.