Four Fun Facts about the Christian Reformed Church in North America

1. The Christian Reformed Church in North America has its roots in the Dutch Reformed churches of the Netherlands and was founded by Dutch immigrants who left the Reformed Church in America in 1857. It's interesting that among the issues leading to the split from the Reformed Church in America was the use of hymns rather than Psalms (in other words, the "grand old hymns of the faith" haven't always been considered the proper songs for worship).

2. Not surprisingly, with "Reformed" in its name, the denomination is theologically Calvinist. It places high value on theological study and the application of theology to current issues. The denomination subscribes to the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, as well as the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dort.

3. The denomination expanded following the Second World War with immigrants from the Netherlands. In general, the Christian Reformed Church advocates increases in immigration and legalizing illegal immigrants, noting that "because we eat and drink communion with immigrants who have no legal status -- we have a reason to care." The church has grown more ethnically diverse, with some predominantly Native American, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, African-American and Hispanic congregations.

  

4. Reformed tradition emphasizes and supports education, including education for those with special needs, elementary and secondary schools, various colleges, and post-graduate educational institutions.

--  Mindy

Four Fun Facts about the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia

1.  The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (also called the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and various acronyms), is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church formed after the Russian Revolution of 1917. It separated from the main Russian Orthodox Church in 1927, though the two groups agreed to restore "canonical communion" in 2007. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russian has historically considered itself as an insepareable part of the Russian Church which was autonomous temporarily due to the domination of the Soviet government over Church affairs.

2.  All the Eastern Orthodox churches are "autocephalous," which means that all of them are in full communion, but each group is independent in its decisions. In some ways, the different Orthodox Churches tend to function like denominations do in the Protestant church, but there are more similarities among Orthodox churches than there are between, say, an Episcopal church and a Calvary Chapel church.

3.  "Church Slavonic" is the primary language used in worship, although the local language is also used by individual congregations. The church has parishes in 43 countries; most are in the United States, but there are churches and communities on every continent except Antarctica.

4.  A number of traditions were unfamiliar to me: standing during almost all of the divine liturgy service (for those who are able to stand -- chairs were available and used by those who weren't able to stand for the two-hour service); headcoverings for women (at the service we attended some women wore hats, some wore lace kerchiefs, some wore long rectangular scarves tied or draped, and a few didn't cover their heads); bowing and periodically touching the floor during worship; purchasing and lighting candles near icons located throughout the worship space; kissing icons (some "what to wear at a Russian Orthodox Church" websites discouraged the wearing of lipstick because the marks left after kissing the icon are difficult to remove).

-- Mindy