Category Archives: WARC

61st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu

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The 61st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu is presently meeting, beginning last Sunday and continuing for the week.

While I have a professional interest in the island nation of Vanuatu and the region, it is helpful to review their Presbyterian heritage.  The one summary available on-line is the informative, but dated, profile from the World Council of Churches.  That profile talks about the beginning as a mission synod with ties to Presbyterian churches in Scotland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Nova Scotia (Canada).  A similarly dated description from Reformed Online provides some more historical details and includes statistical details including that there are 500 conventional parishes and 450 house churches.  This with 121 ordained clergy which are increased by an average of three per year from their ministerial training facility.  The Presbyterian Church is the largest denomination in Vanuatu with slightly over one-third of the 215,000 inhabitants as members.  Because of the educational system the Presbyterian church has established Presbyterians have been influential and numerous in the country’s leadership.  The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has affirmed the PCV as their “primary mission relationship” and the PCV also has relationships with the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Uniting Church in Australia, and PC(USA), among others.

However, tracking the GA turns out to be a bit difficult.  While the church has a web site, we get a page saying “Website Coming Soon.”  No sign of activity on Twitter or in the blogosphere.

Because of the speech by the General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Mr. Setri Nyomi, there has been some press coverage of his comments.  Mr. Nyomi is reported to have spoken both to the Assembly as well as to a study group.  His comments both times were principally related to the care of creation but in the study group he tied in the comments of John Calvin on the subject.

It is also reported in the articles that the country’s acting president and the prime minister spoke to the Assembly affirming church and state working together for the good of the nation.  And it is reported that Mr. Moses Obed was elected Moderator of the General Assembly.

That’s about all I see at this time.  I’ll post next week if any additional information about the Assembly becomes available.

WARC And REC Merger To Form WCRC Moving Forward

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Over the weekend there was news, courtesy of the The Christian Post, that the years-in-the-making union of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) continues to move forward.  And in this new technology-driven world the news is that the new body, the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) now has a web site for the Uniting General Council.  The Council, to mark the unification of the two organizations, will be held in June 2010 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A.  (But I would note that none of these web sites have an RSS feed for the their news thus making it more laborious to keep track of developments.)

To look back on the developments in the uniting process you should check out the WCRC page on the WARC web site.  The news includes the unveiling of the new symbol for the WCRC.  The first joint meeting of the two groups governing bodies with a quote about the new organization:

“This
is not a merger or a takeover but the creation of something new,” added
Peter Borgdorff, president of REC. “I am very excited that this has
come about. At its core, Reformed history is a history of separation.
This is a global witness that emphasizes the better and more excellent
way.”

And there is also news about the work of the implementation committee for the Uniting Council as well as the preparations for the Global Institute of Technology that will immedieatly precede the Uniting Council.

Finally, back in October 2008 a draft constitution was sent out to the member churches for their approvals.

All this news leaves me with two somewhat “tongue in cheek” comments:
1)  According to a paragraph in this article, either the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, someone has done some rounding, or there is a math problem somewhere.

WCRC
will represent 80 million Reformed Christians around the world. WARC
has 75 million members in 214 churches in 107 countries. REC has 12
million members in 41 churches in 25 countries.

(Actually, the answer is buried in another article that notes the two groups currently have 25 churches that belong to both.  This means that over half the REC members, 25 of 41 churches and 7 million of 12 million members are in WARC as well.)

2) While “warc” and “rec” seem to have natural pronunciations, how should we pronounce “wcrc.”  I’d like to buy a vowel.

Update on the Proposed Merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and The Reformed Ecumenical Council

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Late last week it was announced from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) meeting in Trinidad and Tobago that their recommendation to The Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) for the new name of the combined body after they merge is the World Communion of Reformed Churches.  The proposed name is the topic of a WARC news story.  However, to make things clear a definition of “communion” was included:

Communion is an expression of our being together in the body of Christ as we move towards that oneness which is the gift and calling of God, fully expressed in the Trinity. Our desire to enter into communion signifies the commitment of our churches, in the richness of diversity, to mutual caring, respect and service of one another, as witness to our common
calling by the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ.

The proposed name first goes to REC for approval and then to the WARC member churches according to the story.

WARC, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is clearly the larger body with 214 member churches in 107 countries.  These include the major Reformed churches worldwide such as the Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church (USA).  In the US it also includes the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Church in America, the Christian Reformed Church in North America, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America.

The REC, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is roughly one quarter the size of WARC with 39 member churches in 25 countries.  In North America the only member is the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

The proposal is for a uniting convention in Grand Rapids in 2010.