Feb. 4, 2008, Grand Rapids, Mich. -- Rev. Peter Borgdorff, former executive director of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, has been named president of the Reformed Ecumenical Council, a group that represents some 39 denominations and about 12 million Christians worldwide.
Borgdorff takes over from Rev. Douwe Visser, who resigned the presidency of REC to take a position with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches WARC), based in Geneva, Switzerland. Both Borgdorff and Visser were in Grand Rapids on Monday for a special chapel service at which the transition was announced.
"This is part of something very special in the life of our church," said Rev. Jerry Dykstra, the CRC's executive director, at the start of a chapel service in the CRC's Grand Rapids office.
Dykstra noted that Borgdorff, Visser and many others had advocated and worked hard to make the merger between REC and WARC happen.
The new ecumenical body, to be called the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), will formally come into existence at an assembly set for June 2010 at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. It will represent more than 80 million Christians worldwide
Borgdorff has agreed to serve as president of REC during the next two years as the work is done to formalize the merger. He has also agreed to help write a constitution for the new organization.
"My heart breaks over the divisions that have separated us over the years. We praise God to see this kind of unity happening," Dykstra said.
Monday's chapel service celebrated the upcoming merger and also marked the start of a meeting taking place this week on the campus of Calvin College to help organize the June 2010 meeting of the WCRC.
Because of its involvement in the process leading to the decision to merge, the CRC has been named to serve as the convening denomination for the meeting, which is expected to draw hundreds of delegates from around the world.
"We are at a historic moment in the life of Reformed churches all around the world. We are beginning that today in this chapel," said Setri Nyomi, general secretary of WARC. Nyomi was in town to help lay the groundwork for the meeting in 2010.
The decision to merge REC, which is based in Grand Rapids, and WARC came after several years of discussions. At a meeting last year in Trinidad, WARC agreed to recommend to REC that the new global entity be called the World Communion of Reformed Churches. REC had already agreed to the merger at a meeting in South Africa. The new organization will represent nearly 230 churches in more than 100 countries.
"Coming together like this is an example of where the ecumenical movement is going today. It eliminates some of the visible separation and emphasizes what we can do together," said Borgdorff.
Besides the traditional Reformed churches, the WCRC will be open to Presbyterian, Congregational, and other denominations with a Reformed heritage, he added. "I have found over the years that the commonalities among us to be much greater than those things that we think divide us," said Borgdorff.
Richard Van Houten, general secretary of REC, said that the organization's executive committee met last week in Indonesia. After they accepted Visser's resignation, they nominated and elected Borgdorff as the new president.
"The committee felt that he was the best person to step into the leadership role for the next two years of intensive interaction on our way to this new body," said Van Houten, who attended the chapel service in Grand Rapids.
Visser has been appointed as Secretary for Theology and Ecumenical Engagement for WARC.
-By Chris Meehan, CRC Communications
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Henry Hess
Director of Communication
Christian Reformed Church
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