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.