wfn.org | Pope offers good wishes to WCRC

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

Uniting General Council 2010                                    

>News Release 
>25 June 2010

Pope offers good wishes to WCRC

By Chris Meehan, News Editor and Chris Dorn, Reformed Church in
America
Pope Benedict XVI has been one of several church leaders who
have acknowledged the newly organized World Communion of Reformed
Churches (WCRC). The pope sent a letter to the new organization
as well as a representative of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity.
The message was read to delegates to the Uniting General Council
who are attending the founding meeting of the WCRC in Grand
Rapids, a city in the Midwest United States. Representatives of
the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed
Ecumenical Council agreed on 18 June to merge to form a new
organization representing 230 churches worldwide. The meeting
concludes on 26 June.
Gregory Fairbanks, the pontifical representative, read the
letter from the pope. “The theme of this gathering reflects the
inspiration and spirit of unification. Out of two communions has
come one,” Fairbanks said before reading the letter.
In the letter addressed to Clifton Kirkpatrick, president of the
World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and Peter Borgdorff,
president of the Reformed Ecumenical Council, the leader of the
worldwide Roman Catholic Church expressed his “warm greetings”
and “prayerful good wishes” to the delegates assembled at the
Uniting General Council.
In his letter, Benedict XVI affirmed the theme of the council,
“Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace,” words drawn from
the Letter to the Ephesians attributed to the Apostle Paul (4:3).
The Roman Pontiff assured the delegates that the “Lord will never
abandon his disciples in the quest for unity,” and commended the
Reformed churches for the “ecumenical progress” signaled by the
emergence of their new communion.  
He concluded his remarks with the prayer that the commitment to
Christian unity expressed through the formation of WCRC would
"serve as a sign of hope and encouragement to all those who
strive for that full unity which the Lord wills for his
followers."
“This is really a welcome signal that the Vatican has taken
interest in what we are doing,” said Borgdorff. 
Jerry Pillay, the newly elected president of the WCRC, said that
the letter and the fact that the Vatican sent it was an important
gesture of unity “that speaks volumes” for the possibility of
further interactions between the WCRC and the Vatican in the
future.

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
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email: kgr@warc.ch
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