Last fall, Greg Alderman saw the Belhar Confession in action.
Alderman, a pastor in Carmichael, California, was in South Africa to represent the RCA at the General Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa--a denomination he calls the mother church of the Belhar Confession.
To understand that, a little history: back in 1857, the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa committed to worship at different communion tables according to race. 
This created three "daughter churches"--one for Africans, one for Indians, and one for other minority groups. This provided a theological basis for apartheid, a system of racial segregation that was law in South Africa from 1948 to 1990. After the repeal of apartheid, Alderman says, the daughter churches wanted to come back together and seek reconciliation. "They studied the Scriptures and began to see these themes of unity, reconciliation, and justice, which they codified in the Belhar Confession," he says. "Based on their conviction of Scripture, they use this creed as a lens for understanding how they need to deal with the mother church and the culture in which they live."
Two of the daughter churches merged to form the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in 1994, and the URCSA is currently in talks to reunite with the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC).
While Alderman was at the URCSA General Synod, the moderator of the DRC visited to give greetings to the delegates. "Here's this proper Dutch South African still acting as if the clock was turned back 20 years," Alderman says. "He goes up and starts talking, and it's very paternalistic. He blamed the leadership of URCSA for the breakdown in the unity talks and essentially proceeded to lecture the delegates about how to live out faith in this culture. I was amazed--if this had happened in the RCA, people would have gotten up and walked out.
"In the aftermath of this, there were a lot of hurt feelings. People were upset, wondering what does this mean for unity? So they reflected on Belhar. They believe Belhar compels them to work toward unity, but true reconciliation only comes through repentance. So the final decision was made to maintain a posture toward unity, while holding out for reconciliation.
"They were on the path toward forgiving what was happening, but for true reconciliation to take place the Dutch Reformed Church needs to recognize the need to be honest about the past, and then live into a future of justice in regards to racism and seeing others made in the image of God.
"I had a novice understanding of the Belhar before I went to South Africa, but I had never seen it in action like the way I saw it when I was there," he says. "When they say they adopt a creed, they mean it--they really live by it. They really try to understand how it impacts every aspect of their faith life, and I think we could learn a lot from that."
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