Adema to Leave Canadian Ministries Post

Rev. Bruce Adema will be leaving his position as director of Canadian Ministries (DCM), effective Aug. 31, to seek new opportunities for service, the Christian Reformed Church announced yesterday.

In a letter to staff and board members, CRC executive director Rev. Joel R. Boot said that Adema “recently indicated to me that he feels it is time for him to transition out of this position and seek other opportunities to serve the kingdom.”

Boot said he communicated Adema’s request to the Board of Trustees executive committee and they accepted it.

“Both the Board executive committee and I want to express our appreciation to Bruce for his years of faithful service to our denomination, and to wish him God's blessings in his new pursuits,” Boot said, adding that he plans to meet with staff in the CRC’s Canadian office in Burlington, Ontario, to discuss plans for the transition period, including a timetable for seeking a new DCM.

He said that interim appointees, together with the Canadian staff and the Board of Trustees, will carry forward the work of Canadian Ministries in the meantime.

Adema was appointed director of Canadian Ministries inSeptember, 2005, by the CRC’s Board of Trustees after serving for nine years as a church planter and theological educator with Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) in the Philippines, but delayed taking up the position until the summer of 2006, so that he could complete his term as interim president of Koinonia Theological Seminary in Davao City, Philippines.

Prior to serving in the Philippines, he was pastor of the Christian Reformed church in St. Albert, Alberta.

While serving as the director of Canadian Ministries, Adema was active in ecumenical affairs. He is the past president of the Canadian Council of Churches and played a role in an agreement, approved by Synod 2010, that brought the Christian Reformed Church in North America into a closer relationship with the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

He also was involved with the CRC’s Aboriginal ministries, working to have the Canadian government pay closer attention and to devote more resources to Aboriginal people, and with the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue.