That new body is being created through the union of two bodies: the World Alliance of Reformed Churches known as WARC, and the Reformed Ecumenical Council known as REC.
The new World Communion — created by a formal vote of the Uniting General Council — meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich., from June 18-26 — now represents 80 million members from 230 denominations in 108 countries. Peter Borgdorff, president of the Reformed Ecumenical Council, described this new entity during the opening worship service as “a community under construction,” being shaped by God and the gospel — and a uniting of the transformational and redemptive strands of Reformed Christianity.
“Friends, I do believe that it’s God’s intention that we dwell together in unity,” said Clifton Kirkpatrick, the former stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), who was elected WARC’s president in 2004 and will serve for a time on the executive committee of the World Communion. Kirkpatrick spoke of the importance of this action both for Reformed Christians and for the broader ecumenical community.
“It is our hope that the merged entity will be stronger than the two were separately,” stated the introduction to a document, “Moving Towards Unity,” prepared for this gathering.
The union of these two international Reformed bodies, after more than four years of conversation and planning, also represents a hope that Reformed Christians around the world together can make an impact on some of the world’s deeply-entrenched difficulties.
Reports coming to the 475 delegates of the Uniting General Council for its consideration at this meeting reflect some of those concerns: poverty, economic justice, the tensions of religious pluralism, HIV and AIDS, oppression, continuing ecological damage, and more.
There also is a focus at this gathering on relationships with indigenous people, in recognition of that, the opening session featured drumming and greetings from Native American leaders from the Michigan area.
In a prayer she offered during a meeting of the WARC General Council, a few hours before the World Communion was formally created. Lilia Rafalimanana, a pastor from Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar, gave thanks for “the new baby which is to be born” and for “the spirit of love and spirit of unity which brings us together here.”
But the new baby didn’t come to life without some birth pangs.
Women from Cuba and Uganda asked, for example, what role women will play in the leadership of the new World Communion, and there was debate over what portion of the delegates churches will send to council meetings should be required to be women. After considerable discussion, the delegates voted to require denominations with at least 200,000 members to send delegations of at least half women (replacing another proposal, which would have required only one-third of such delegations to be women). But the delegates voted down a proposal to require that at least half the members of the council’s executive committee and its officers to be women
During worship, the delegates also were asked to pray for 73 people, including 46 delegates, who were not able to attend because the U.S. government did not grant them visas to attend the meeting.
Susan Davies, a delegate from the United Church of Christ (www.ucc.org/) said during the worship service that “as a citizen of this country I am outraged” at the government’s unwillingness to issue the visas “because they fear terrorism and illegal immigration.” Because 46 delegates weren’t given visas, “their voices and votes are silenced,” Davies said. She urged those who are present as they make decisions, to “hear the thundering echoes of our unjustly-excluded colleagues,” and their passion for justice.
During a news conference, Kirkpatrick and Borgdorff said they had met with government officials well before the gathering, hoping to prevent any delegates from being denied a visa. But the actual process of granting the visas proved to be “very arbitrary,” Borgdorff said, with those being denied ranging from students wanting to attend a pre-council gathering to “respected community and church leaders” who were to be official delegates to the Uniting General Council meeting. No specific reasons were given for those being denied visas, although Kirkpatrick said he and Borgdorff were told ahead of time that security concerns and illegal immigration would be the government’s top concerns if visas were withheld. The largest group of delegates denied visas were from Indonesia, Kirkpatrick said.
Other international ecumenical gatherings have also experienced difficulty with acquiring visas, Kirkpatrick said, making it increasingly difficult for Christian groups from the northern hemisphere to be able to host international gatherings.
WITNESS FOR UNITY
Kirkpatrick also spoke of the urgency, in a world fragmented by divisions, of Reformed Christians making a witness for unity.
The road to Grand Rapids has been a long one — reflecting in part the schisms and alliances that have been part of the history of the Reformed family of churches, which emerged from the 16th century Protestant Reformation and split from the Roman Catholic church, and were influenced by Reformation theologians such as John Calvin.
WARC, the larger of the two groups to join the World Communion, was formed in 1970 — itself the merger of two earlier Reformed and Presbyterian groups, one of which dates back to 1875. WARC, known for an emphasis on social and economic justice, had 214 member churches, representing 75 million Christians in 107 countries.
REC, smaller and younger, and with more of a confessional and evangelical focus, was created in 1946 and had 41 member denominations, representing 12 million members in 25 countries.
The new union also is taking place in an environment of financial stress for many ecumenical organizations —and in the broader context of diverse expressions of Christianity outside the Reformed tradition, including Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Pentecostalism.
Kirkpatrick, in a report to the conference, wrote that “throughout the global north our movement is in decline numerically and far too many of our congregations are living on the edge of survival. In much of the global south our movement is still growing but in place after place it is being eclipsed by rapidly growing Protestant movements, by mega-churches, and by communities that have gathered around the ‘prosperity gospel.’ … Rarely are we seen as the dynamic, growing church of the future in any part of the world.”
Kirkpatrick also wrote that “we are the tradition that is most likely to divide” through internal disputes among Reformed Christians.
But he and others also spoke of the strengths of the Reformed tradition — including Christians “engaged in the struggle for justice, often at the risk of their own lives,” in places such as Colombia, Madagascar, the Middle East, the Philippines, Sudan, and elsewhere.
The opening session of this council was devoted to what Borgdorff called the “architecture,” or building the house, of the new World Communion – agreeing on the details of its constitution and bylaws.
After an afternoon’s discussion, that got done, with the delegates standing to vote on the constitution. Then the formal creation of the World Communion of Reformed Churches became reality with the singing of the Doxology — “Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” in a beautiful swirl of accents.
