The Heritage Reformed Congregations denomination was established in 1993, when the synod of the Netherlands Reformed Congregations deposed the consistory of the First Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids. The background was, that Beeke had been divorced from his first wife in 1988 and remarried one year later; that leads to the question if he was able to hold offices in the church, which a majority of the synod possibly denied. [4] A letter of the dutch sister church - the Gereformeerde Gemeenten – stated: „Our representatives, who visited your December-meeting, informed us that the discussions during your meeting appeared to have come to a deadlock. In light of that situation they raised a proposal to take a vote to see whether the Synod still had confidence in Rev. J.R. Beeke. They told us that they came to this proposal because they really did not know what could be done in this situation and that they hoped that their proposal might open a way out of an impossible situation.“ [5] However, 780 of the one thousand members of the church could not accept the deposition of their pastor, elders, and deacons.
The consistory felt compelled to form a new denomination named the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation (renamed the Heritage Reformed Congregations in 2003),[6] while Joel R. Beeke continued ministering to the church. Eight other churches soon joined the Grand Rapids congregation to form a new denomination, bringing the denominational membership to about two thousand.[7]
Starting in the 2010s, the denomination began a dialogue with the Free Reformed Churches of North America about a possible denominational merger. In 2017, the two denominations held simultaneous synods to discuss the proposed merger.[9][10]
^Although Presbyterianism itself originated in Scotland, those denominations stand out as having a more prominent Scottish heritage and/or connection with Scottish Presbyterian denominations.
^Those denominations allow member churches to be more diverse as regards the reformed tradition that they adhere to.