Our Broader Church Affiliation
Our confession of broader church unity
The Cornerstone United Reformed Church of Edmonton makes no claim of being the only true church. In fact to do so would be to deny one of our cherished beliefs that the true church "is not confined, bound, or limited to a certain place or to certain persons, but is spread and dispersed over the whole world; and yet is joined and united with heart and will, by the power of faith, in one and the same Spirit" (BC, Article 27).
Neither do we claim to be a "one-of-a-kind" church. We rejoice in the fact that there are hundreds of actual churches which we can identify by name which confess the same truth we have received. There are certainly thousands of such churches in the world of which we know nothing or very little. We do know of several denominations who have the same official doctrinal standards as ourselves. It is our desire and serious effort to grow in our knowledge of these churches and in the expression of the spiritual unity which we possess in Christ.
Our practice of broader church unity
We not only confess the broader unity of the true Christian Church, we want to practice it. This means exercising real cooperation and mutual accountability with other churches. We do this formally through our membership in a federation of churches called The United Reformed Churches in North America. Made up of churches in the U.S. and Canada, we are united in faith and practice. We are committed to assisting one another and cooperating together in such things as mission work, examining ministers for ordination, addressing common concerns, and giving mutual oversight so that purity of doctrine and faithfulness may be maintained in the churches.
This cooperative work is partly exercised through annual meetings of smaller groupings of churches (classis), as well as regular but less frequent meetings of the entire federation (synod). Ministers and elders are delegated by the churches to represent them at such meetings. The United Reformed Churches have adopted a "Church Order" which spells out the way in which we have agreed to express our mutual commitments as churches of Jesus Christ. This Church Order will be made available to you also upon your request.