SB Staff Annual Meeting 2024

Last week Tuesday, June 4, the annual Standard Bearer meeting was held at the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary.

Once annually, the editors and writers of the SB meet to decide on topics, rubrics, and writers for the upcoming volume year. With as many writers and editors in attendance as possible, the SB staff makes use of this annual meeting to fellowship with fellow contributors and to make decisions on any weighty matters related to the content and direction of the publication.

Editors and writers of the SB meet once annually to make decisions on the content, direction, and schedule of the magazine.

Notably, this year marked the retirement of Prof. Barry Gritters as one of three editors. After 38 years of writing and editing, Gritters has officially stepped down as editor, though he intends to continue contributing to the magazine as often as possible. In his place, Prof. Cory Griess was appointed to serve alongside Prof. Brian Huizinga and Rev. Josh Engelsma. According to the official announcement by the SB staff:

Last year Prof. B. Gritters informed the staff that he intended to retire as editor at the conclusion of volume year 100. Therefore, at its annual meeting on June 04, 2024, the staff appointed Prof. C. Griess to be one of the co-editors of the magazine with Prof. B. Huizinga and Rev. J. Engelsma. The Theological School Committee has approved this appointment. We thank God for the faithful labors of Prof. Gritters over the past twenty years and ask for your prayers for the new editor that he may take up the work with God's blessing and carry it out with wisdom and discretion.

Prof. Barry Gritters

Stay tuned to future SB issues for news from this and other SB meetings!

Read more from the Standard Bearer via the archives here, and subscribe to the magazine through the RFPA website here. Please note that there are both domestic (USA) and international subscriptions available.

What is the Standard Bearer?

The SB is a publication that’s been in print since 1924. This Reformed magazine has boldly and unashamedly testified to the faith of the Protestant Reformation for nearly a century. This magazine was the first of the RFPA’s long-term publications, and today has thousands of subscribers worldwide.

The magazine traces its history back to the early 1920s “common grace” controversy between the Christian Reformed synod and a number of pastors, including Rev. Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965). Shortly before these pastors left the CRC to form a new denomination, the Protestant Reformed Christian (PRC) churches, they started a publication called the Standard Bearer, which served as a literary outlet for their views on common vs. particular grace. Hoeksema served as editor of the magazine for many years. Learn more about this history from such RFPA publications as Sin and Grace (2003) and The Rock Whence We Are Hewn (2015).