wfn.org | Fear of Splitting Churches Prompts WARC to Review Criteria

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

12-July-1999 
99232 
 
    Fear of Splitting Churches Prompts WARC 
    to Review Membership Criteria 
 
    Kirkpatrick says fostering links between churches 
    is preferable to open admission 
 
    by Edmund Doogue 
 
TAIPEI-While the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) agreed July 8 
to accept three new member churches - in Bangladesh, France and Argentina - 
at the same time the organization decided to examine the criteria for 
membership. 
 
    The decision by WARC's executive committee followed a discussion on 
whether the admission of small churches into WARC fostered the splintering 
of churches, which is recognized by theologians to be a major problem in 
the Reformed tradition. 
 
    The acceptance by WARC of  three new members brings to a total of 217 
the number of Presbyterian, Congregational, Reformed and United churches 
which belong to the Geneva-based organization.  The alliance includes 
churches of a wide variety of sizes, from some with fewer than 100 members, 
to several which count their membership in millions. 
 
    But, as the committee discussed the application for membership by a 
relatively small church in central Argentina - Iglesia Presbiteriana 
Argentina - a member of the committee from the United States raised 
questions about the effects of admitting small churches into WARC. 
 
    "I am uneasy when we begin to recognize churches with three 
congregations and 200 members," said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated 
clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), quoting figures provided to the 
committee about the church in Argentina. 
 
    He told the executive committee that WARC could be supporting the 
splintering of churches by accepting more and more small churches as 
members, and suggested that a better strategy would be the fostering of 
links between Reformed churches in any given country.  He pointed out that 
the World Council of Churches, a sister organisation to WARC, required 
churches to have a minimum number of members before they were accepted for 
membership. 
 
    After yesterday's debate, Kirkpatrick told ENI: "My question is not 
about that particular church [in Argentina]," adding that he had full 
confidence in the judgment of the WARC staff and executive committee 
members who recommended the admission of the church. 
 
    "My concern is that the membership committee be asked to look more 
generally at the criteria for membership.  We seem to be in a time of 
splintering of the Reformed family in which there are more and more small 
churches being created. 
 
    "Part of what we are about is promoting a sense of Christian unity and 
common Reformed witness."  Rather than giving institutional recognition to 
small churches, WARC should perhaps encourage small churches in the same 
country to link up, he said. 
 
    Kirkpatrick, whose church has 2.6 million adult confirmed members, 
admitted to ENI that the tendency of Reformed churches to split "is a 
problem in the U.S. ... [where] there are probably 10 WARC member churches. 
America is one of the greatest examples of the propensity of the Reformed 
churches to divide too easily."  However, Kirkpatrick said, his church was 
encouraging closer links between Reformed churches in the U.S. and also 
with Lutherans.  WARC itself also had a "Mission in Unity" program to 
encourage similar developments, he said. 
 
    During the discussion, many executive committee members strongly 
supported the application of the Iglesia Presbiteriana Argentina.  Epifanio 
Marquez, of Venezuela, said that the church was not based in Buenos Aires, 
like many of Argentina's Reformed churches, but in Rosario, in the centre 
of Argentina.  "They are a special group in a special place," he said. 
 
    William McComish, dean of Geneva's St Pierre Cathedral, said during the 
discussion that the issue of small churches had been dealt with when WARC 
accepted the membership application of the Arab Evangelical Church of Sao 
Paolo. The Sao Paolo church has one congregation and a total membership of 
90 people, according to a handbook of Reformed churches, "The Reformed 
Family Worldwide," published early this year.  The church was set up by a 
Lebanese immigrant. Paraic Reamonn, press officer for WARC, told ENI he 
believed that the church was WARC's smallest member church. 
 
    Milan Opocensky, WARC's general secretary, spoke in support of the 
Argentinian church's membership application, but also said it was important 
to foster cooperation between Reformed churches.  "We are working for 
unity, not for splits," he said, adding that WARC used to accept  as 
members any church considered to be Reformed or Evangelical before 
membership criteria  were introduced in 1990. 
 
    The two other churches accepted into WARC membership during the 
organization's annual executive committee meeting here were: 
 
    The Church of Bangladesh - a United church, with Anglican and 
Presbyterian origins - which has 13,500 members in 40 congregations. 
 
    The Malagasy Protestant Church in France, which has several thousand 
members. According to information provided to WARC by the church, it was 
set up partly to minister to Malagasy ex-servicemen in Paris. 

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