wfn.org | Calvin celebration service telecast draws two million viewers

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> World Alliance of Reformed Churches
> News Release
> 31 May 2009

Broadcast of Calvin celebration service draws two million viewers

A South African and a Scot are the English voices for the
Eurovision telecast of a worship service broadcast live in French
from Genevaâ??s Cathedral Saint-Pierre on Pentecost Sunday in
celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin.

Puleng LenkaBula, a South African academic who specializes in
bioethics, economics and faith and Ian Alexander of the Church of
Scotland report feeling â??quite elatedâ?? by being part of a  live
television production.

LenkaBula and Alexander read the English script for the service
which included a â??dialogue sermonâ?? between Liz Vuadi Vibila,  a
pastor from the Democratic Republic of Congo and professor of
theology at the United Evangelical Mission in Germany and Antoine
Reymond, President of the Conference of Reformed Churches of the
French-speaking area of Switzerland.

Two hundred Reformed church Christians from more than
35countries joined a crowd of 1200 people at the cathedral. The
group included 73 members of the Calvin Jubilee Study tour
organized by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and
40 members of the joint executive committees of WARC and the
Reformed Ecumenical Council which have been meeting in Geneva.

The service was broadcast to a European television audience
conservatively estimated at two million viewers.  It was also
picked up in the United States by Calvin College in Grand Rapids
and in Korea by the Christian Broadcast System in Seoul.

The webcast version is available on DVD in French, German,
English, Hungarian, Italian and Dutch.  For information about how
to order copies from the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches
visit http://www.calvin09.org ( http://www.calvin09.org/ )  or
send an e-mail message to vps@vpsprod.com

> ***
> Contact:
> Kristine Greenaway
> Executive Secretary, Communications
> World Alliance of Reformed Churches
> 150 Route de Ferney
> P.O. Box 2100
> 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
> tel.  +41.22 791 62 43 / +41 79 508 20 43
> fax: +41.22 791 65 05
> web: www.warc.ch ( http://www.warc.ch/ )
> e-mail: kgr@warc.ch

>