wfn.org | Reformed International Handbook Identifies Startling 746 Churches

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5-February-1999 
99052 
 
    Reformed International Handbook 
    Identifies Startling 746 Churches 
 
    by Edmund Doogue 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
GENEVA--Three years ago, when Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Vischer, 
Protestant theologians based in the Geneva region, began compiling a 
handbook of Reformed churches 
worldwide, they expected the final list would include "between 450 and 500 
churches." 
 
    The final product - a 740-page handbook - lists 746 churches in 149 
countries.  For Korea alone 99 Reformed churches are listed, almost all of 
them "Presbyterian." 
 
    As "The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, 
Theological Schools, and International Organizations" was published this 
month, even the two editors expressed surprise at what Bauswein described 
as "the scope, diversity, disunity and potentials of the Reformed family 
world-wide." 
 
    "I was very surprised by the number," Vischer, professor emeritus of 
ecumenical theology at the Evangelical Reformed Theological Faculty of 
Berne, told ENI.  "Even mutual knowledge between Reformed churches is 
minimal.  We discovered some countries where the main Reformed or 
Presbyterian churches have no knowledge of some other Reformed churches in 
their own country." 
 
    The handbook, in its length and detail, is an impressive work. 
Bauswein, former director of the John Knox International Reformed Center in 
Geneva, said it would prove most useful, especially to church leaders, 
church organizations and mission agencies within the "Reformed family."  It 
would also be invaluable, he said, to people in inter-confessional dialogue 
and researchers studying religion. 
 
    The book lists Reformed churches country by country.  Each country 
entry begins with a local history of Christianity, which includes 
information about the establishment and growth of Reformed churches.  Each 
Reformed church in that country is then listed in order of date of 
establishment.  The entry for each church begins with a history of the 
church and ends with a list of statistics, including church membership, the 
number of clergy, both male and female, the confessions of faith recognized 
by the church, the regional and international organizations to which it is 
linked, the church's theological schools, and the periodicals which it 
publishes.  Finally, the statistics include the address, phone and fax 
number, as well as e-mail addresses of the church's headquarters. 
 
    Another comprehensive list - of the world's 529 theological schools 
with Reformed training - takes up 140 pages.  Also listed in the book are 
the eight  Reformed world organizations. 
 
    Bauswein told ENI that compiling the book involved the help of hundreds 
of people in many countries, and many methods of communication, including 
electronic mail and mission radio telephones.  The editors contacted every 
church they knew of or were told about which could be 
considered part of the Reformed family -- Reformed, Presbyterian, 
Congregational, Evangelical and United churches which have a Reformed 
element.  The entries were compiled by many different people, checked by 
the editors and then sent to the respective churches for approval. 
 
    The authors did not "judge" churches or the merits of their doctrines 
and activities.  "We tried to present the version as the churches 
themselves see it," Bauswein said.  "We have tried not to have any 
particular bias, and we did our best to locate all Reformed churches in 
every country." 
 
    But, though the book is without doubt a useful reference work, "The 
Reformed Family Worldwide" seems guaranteed to cause a shock to the 
Christian world, especially members of Reformed churches.  The initial 
reaction of most readers will be astonishment at the proliferation of 
Reformed churches, and concern about the division this indicates within one 
of Christianity's main traditions. 
 
    "The picture of division [demonstrated by the book] is rather 
devastating," Vischer told ENI.  Asked if the authors hoped that the book 
would be an instrument to reduce division among Reformed churches, Vischer, 
who also wrote the 35-page historical introduction to the handbook,  said: 
"People are beginning to reflect what that [division] means, and, in my 
view, that is the real purpose of the book." 
 
    While the book provided useful information about the size, location and 
theology of Reformed churches, Vischer said, he could not help thinking of 
Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, where Paul says he has heard of 
divisions in the local church between members who say they belong to one 
leader or another.  Paul's response is to ask: "Has Christ been divided?" 
Vischer commented: "That's what we Reformed have to face up to." 
 
    Asked by ENI why there were so many Reformed denominations and so many 
splits, Vischer replied: "There is no one overall reason, it's partly the 
result of a voluntarist understanding of the church, regarding the church 
as an association of people." 
 
    At the 1989 General Council in Seoul of the world's biggest Reformed 
organization, the World Alliance of Reformed Church, a list was made of the 
causes of splits. Vischer said some of the principal ones identified were 
doctrinal differences; political allegiances; the strong Reformed tendency 
to organize mission on a country-by-country basis, for example, churches 
from various 
countries set up 11 Reformed missions in Nigeria, resulting in the 
establishment of 11 different Reformed churches; differences over 
participation in the ecumenical movement; and conflict over the "three Ps" 
- power, personality, property. 
 
    Vischer also told ENI that compiling the book brought home to him the 
stark contrast between theologians' high-minded writing about the Reformed 
tradition and the reality of church division.  "My impression is that much 
of our Reformed theological thinking is "docetic" - never 
touches the earth. Docetism was a view held by some early Christians that 
Christ never really became flesh," he explained.  "What I'm saying is that 
it's easy to theorize, starting from the Bible, and to ignore history 
itself.  But you need to take seriously who you are.  It's like someone who 
formulates wonderful theories about human beings, but has in fact rather 
dubious behavior." 
 
    The 3,000 copies of "The Reformed Family Worldwide" released in January 
provide a valuable instrument of reference for Reformed churches and those 
who relate to them. But it also seems certain to be a catalyst for 
reflection and action within the Reformed tradition.  Bauswein 
described the book as a "mirror" for the Reformed family to examine itself. 
Now it remains to be seen how Reformed Christians will react to what they 
see in that mirror. 

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