This morning, the delegates voted to provisionally accept the Belhar Confession! It is difficult to imagine a vote that would please me more! I hope and expect this provisional adoption will be akin to the provisional adoption of a liturgy, which means that it will grow in usage and acceptance over the coming years. I also hope that it will, after the 2-year provisional period it will be adopted as a full and equal confessional standard.
This is new ground for the RCA since, as you may know, we have never actually adopted a confessional standard. The three we now hold were in existence when the RCA came into being (i.e. they weren’t adopted later). I sit in a strange middle ground between hoping (and praying) that we will adopt Behlar fully and completely but NOT make it a habit of doing so frequently. A new standard every couple centuries sounds about right to me. 
In any case. If you haven’t checked out the Belhar, now is the perfect time to give it a glance. We’ve studied it (and used it!) at Dunningville, but if you’ve lost your copy (or never got one), you can get it at:
The RCA’s Website (English Belhar Link)
Grace and Peace,
`tim
