wfn.org | South African Church Leader Elected President of WCRC

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

Uniting General Council 2010                                    

>News Release 
>24 June 2010

SouthAfrican ChurchLeader Elected President of WCRC
By Chris Meehan, news editor

Jerry Pillay came to the Uniting General Council in Grand
Rapids, Michigan, from South Africa as simply one of hundreds of
delegates.

The pastor and church leader travelled to the Upper Midwest of
the United States to help conduct business that led last week to
the creation of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).

But Friday afternoon, Pillay became more than a delegate – and
it happened the day after his 45th birthday – when he was
overwhelmingly elected as the first president of the WCRC.

“I came here as a mere delegate, with no intentions or
aspirations, and I walk away as president,” said Pillay, who is
general secretary of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in South
Africa.

He credited his election to Jesus Christ who in recent years has
surprised him in many ways.

“In all humility, I thank you for your trust,” he told delegates
meeting in Van Noord Arena on the campus of Calvin College. “With
God’s grace, I will do this job, realizing I am unequal to the
task of those who served as presidents of the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC). I
will learn from them, but my only desire is to walk in the steps
of Jesus Christ, led by his Spirit.”

He has been moderator of the Africa Region of WARC; serves as
chair of strategic planning for the Council for World Mission,
and has served as a mediator with his church in helping to
resolve disputes among churches in other countries in his region
of Africa.

In an interview after his election, Pillay said that he had felt
the calling from God to be a minister from the age of ten.
Occasionally, he fought it, but he always moved forward and into
the ministry.

He studied theology in graduate school and earned a Ph.D in
missiology from the University of Cape Town. His dissertation was
on “The Church and development in the new South Africa.” Outreach
in the course of creating unity has always been important to
him.

In 1987, he began his service as a minister, serving a few
churches and spending time preaching and visiting congregations
in the United States.

Married with three children, he never imagined that he would
ever be president of an organization that served more than 80
million Reformed and Presbyterian Christians worldwide.

At the same time, though, he said in the interview, he has long
“felt God calling me to bigger things… I’ve been deeply
involved in the ecumenical movement … I’ve always seen God at
work in my life.”

As president of the WCRC, he plans to continue his ecumenical
work, striving for unity and fellowship between the churches in
the newly formed organization. “Our voice together will be a
voice that is strong,” he said. 

The WCRC, he said, will continue the social justice legacy of
WARC and the deeply pietistic and theologically-based legacy of
REC. In fact, he sees the two as part of a whole.

He said he reads the Bible to demand that the followers of
Christ engage in prayer and community and also in actions of
social justice. “The church has to be involved in serious mission
worldwide,” he said.

Pillay has been a pastor and church leader in South Africa
during a time of sweeping historical change as the country,
largely at the prodding of Reformed churches, dismantled its
policy of apartheid, the official separation of the races.

He has since spoken out vigorously for human rights in countries
such as Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

As president of the WCRC, he said, he will push for a greater
dialogue with other Christian denominations, such as the Roman
Catholic Church that sent a papal representative as an observer
to this week’s merger meeting.

He also foresees interfaith dialogue with persons of other
faiths, such as Jews and Muslims. “The work of the church doesn’t
exclude people of other faiths,” he said. 

Overall, he said, he sees the merger of WARC and REC as creating
“a new chapter in the history of the Reformed and Presbyterian
churches. We hope to take what we have and see how we can use it
to help shape the future and to have an impact on the world for
Jesus Christ.”

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
>Executive Secretary, Communications
>World Communion of Reformed Churches

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
email: kgr@warc.ch
web: www.reformedchurches.org (
http://www.reformedchurches.org/#_blank )