A conference that begins tomorrow gives me a chance to highlight one of the international bodies of Reformed churches. Most of my readers are probably familiar with the relatively giant World Communion of Reformed Churches that has a membership of 230 Protestant churches around the world. And a number of my North American readers are no doubt aware of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council which has a membership of 12 churches and which the PCA has had some discussion about leaving. In between these two is the International Conference of Reformed Churches, a 30 member international body that is to my knowledge the second largest association of Presbyterian and Reformed churches in the world. And to be clear, membership in ICRC and NAPARC is not exclusive of each other and many of the NAPARC churches are members of the ICRC.

The ICRC begins its 8th Assembly tomorrow in Cardiff, Wales, UK, and it will run for the next week. Their Assemblies are held every four years and this one is being hosted by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales which has their own local arrangements web page for the meeting. The meeting will be at the Glamorgan Conference Center at the University of South Wales. The name has changed from the posted University of Glamorgan due to a recently completed merger.

The theme of the meeting is “Preach the word” based on 2 Timothy 4:2 and will be discussed in three subheadings throughout the meeting. In particular, the one on “The practice of preaching (in today’s non-literary cultures)” got my attention. Don’t know if audio or text will be posted after the meeting but I would be interested if it is. I am hopeful because Resources from the 2009 Conference are available on the ICRC web site.

I have no strong recommendations for following the Assembly on social media, particularly since searching on ICRC will get a flood of tweets about another well known organization with those initials. Looking at the list of member churches I see the Free Church of Scotland which has an active Twitter stream (@FreeChurchScot) to keep an eye on for possible updates. I will update here if I find anything once the meeting is underway.

But from a business point of view there will be minutes posted at some later date so we will be able to catch up with the business. So we wish the delegates well in their discussions and reflections, discernment and decision making. Our prayers for them during their Assembly.