the sacraments, and do most
forms of pastoral ministry in emerging mission churches or as staff
assistants in organized churches.
The event came during a special meeting of Classis Toronto just weeks after
the 1996 CRC Synod said "no" to 24 overtures requesting a change to last
year's decision on women in office which allowed churches to ordain women as
elders and ministers by, in effect, bypassing the church order. At the same
time at Synod 1996 three women were declared candidates for the ministry in
the CRC.
Twenty-four years after the debate over women in office began in earnest,
and dozens of study committee reports later, Hofman faced an audience of her
colleagues, fellow ministers, elders, members of her home congregation, First
Toronto CRC, and other interested observers. After two-and-a-half hours of
fielding questions ranging from her own spiritual developmentto specific
points of theology, the chairman of the meeting, Rev. Jack Vos of First CRC
in Barrie entertained a motion to accept Ruth Hofman for ordination as a
minister of the Word and Sacraments in the CRC. After a brief executive
session in which delegates discussed and voted on the motion, Hofman entered
the sanctuary of the Willowdale CRC to a standing ovation and sustained
applause.
Explaining the decision of classis, Vos said the delegates asked themselves
a basic question: "Are we persuaded that the Lord has laid His hand on you to
become His servant?" The decision, said Vos on the part of the majority of
the delegates, was obvious from the applause.
Long a proponent of women's ordination, Vos offered two words of pastoral
advice to Hofman: "Preach the Word with passion," and realize that "it will
take