wfn.org | Children help usher in new era for Reformed churches

["Daphne Martin_Gnanadason" <Daphne.Martin_Gnanadason@warc.ch>]

Uniting General Council 2010                                    

>News Release 
>20 June 2010

Children help usher in new era for Reformed churches

>By Jerry Van Marter, UGC correspondent

About 3,000 Reformed Christians gathered at Calvin College
Sunday for a worship service celebrating the birth of the World
Communion of Reformed Churches, which unites 80 million believers
in 108 countries.

The service included prayers and scripture readings, anthems and
hymns sung in at least a dozen languages, the sacrament of the
Lord’s Supper, and a special exchange with children. WCRC leaders
told them: “We are coming together not just for ourselves but
also for future generations.”

One child, Christina Lobulo, responded: “This is our family! We
are one! To God be the glory!”
WCRC leaders also explained the communion’s new logo, which
incorporates a communion or baptismal bowl, a circle representing
unity, interwoven threads symbolizing strength, partnership and
cooperation; and the cross, which Clifton Kirkpatrick said “is a
sign of our confessional identity.”  Kirkpatrick was general
secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC),
which merged late last week with the Reformed Ecumenical Council
to form WCRC.

During the afternoon service, Kirkpatrick and others presented a
replica of the WCRC logo to the children, who responded, “This is
our family! The World Communion of Reformed Churches. To God be
the glory!”

Later, another child, Sol Kim, an-eight-year-old from South
Korea, joined the invitation to the Lord’s table. “This table
gives visible witness to the communion we celebrate today,” said
Jerry Pillay, a pastor from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in
Southern Africa.

Preaching from the story in 1 Kings 19 about God’s encounter
with a discouraged Elijah, Yvonne Delk of the United Church of
Christ in the US, offered “a three-fold word” to those who have
great expectations — and doubts — about what WCRC can
accomplish.

“Do not fear, God is with us,” she said. “We are a people rooted
in the unity of the Spirit.” And finally, she said, “God is
calling us to a bold witness.” 

In the face of promise and uncertainty, Delk said, “We are a
people united in the Spirit and by the Spirit. The Spirit never
leaves us as it finds us. The Spirit gives new life in our
churches, our structures, our communion and our globe.”

If those gathered here will remain clear about this Spirit, Delk
said, “then I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the Spirit
of God will not leave this communion of churches.”

The Uniting General Council 2010 in Grand Rapids, United States
(June 18-28) marks the merger of the World Alliance of Reformed
Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council to form the World
Communion of Reformed Churches. 

Contact: Kristine Greenaway

UGC News Room – Calvin College - Hoogenboom Center Room HC 204
Cell phone: 1-616-826-5540 or 1-616-826-8636: News Room:
1-616-526-7885

UGC News Room – Calvin College - Hoogenboom Center Room HC 204 
Cell phone: 1-616-826-5540 or 1-616-826-8636
email: kgr@warc.ch
web: www.reformedchurches.org (
http://www.reformedchurches.org/#_blank )