The 1857 Secession of Classis Holland from the Reformed Church in America occurred in January of that year. The classis became the basis for the Christian Reformed Church in North America[1]. The secession was led by Gijsbert Haan and other orthodox ministers of the "northern" or DeCocksian Groninger tradition of the Afscheiding Issues included the perceived liberalization of the church in areas such as the use of hymns instead of only Psalms, offering communion to non-Reformed people, neglecting doctrines such as predestination. Van Raalte, however, remained in the RCA, and the early CRC found few supporters outside of its own circles. A controversy over Freemasonry in the RCA in the early 1880s led many Dutch Americans into the CRC.