WCRC sets draft programmatic objectives for period to 2017

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

World Communion of Reformed Churches 
News release
December 1, 2010
 
WCRC sets draft programmatic objectives for period to 2017
 
The Officers of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC)
have agreed to a draft statement of key programmatic objectives
for the coming seven-year period based on input from member
churches, partner organizations, regional councils of churches,
and the WCRC Executive Committee. 
 
WCRC general secretary, Setri Nyomi, is pleased with the
recommendations saying that the key programmatic objectives set
the framework within which to develop plans for the period
leading up to the next meeting of the General Council in 2017.
 
“We have received a clear message from our member churches with
their vision for the WCRC,” says Nyomi. “Development of a
comprehensive strategic plan is well underway thanks to input
from member churches and WCRC regional councils.”
 
The key programmatic objectives are: mission, theology, justice,
ecumenical engagement and Communion (close unity among member
churches).
 
The objectives were formulated by a group meeting in Geneva
(23-27 November) charged with drafting a strategic plan for the
organization following its founding meeting in the United States
in June. The team, whose members come from WCRC member churches
in Africa, Asia, North America, South America, and Europe, based
their proposals on responses to a questionnaire sent to just
under 300 respondents. Approximately 20% replied. 
 
In presenting the draft report to the Officers at the conclusion
of the meeting of the strategic planning team, the team’s
facilitator, Omega Bula, underlined the vital importance of the
role of regional councils in carrying out the organization’s key
objectives.
 
"Regional councils should be the locus of much of WCRC's work,
and thus the Executive Committee and staff should develop methods
for empowering Regional Councils," the team’s report says in
citing recommendations from the policy report adopted at the WCRC
founding general council. 
 
WCRC president, Jerry Pillay, welcomes the report’s
recommendations. 
 
“The WCRC will come alive and touch the lives of people in
parishes when programmes are rooted at the local level,” says the
South African church leader.

 
The strategic plan will be presented to the organization’s
executive committee for approval at meetings in Geneva in May
2011. Meanwhile, the recommendations received by the Officers
will form the basis of WCRC programmes planned for the first half
of 2011. These include dialogue between Reformed Churches and the
Roman Catholic Church, solidarity and relationship-building
visits to member churches by the General Secretary and the
President, production of a book of Caribbean women’s Bible
studies, and disbursement of funds from the Partnership Fund for
church-initiated development projects.
 
WCRC was created in June 2010 through a merger of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical
Council (REC). Its 230 member churches representing 80 million
Christians are active worldwide in initiatives supporting
economic, climate and gender justice, mission, and cooperation
among Christians of different traditions. 
 
Media Contact: 
Kristine Greenaway
Executive Secretary, Communications
World Communion of Reformed Churches
PO Box2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
tel. +41 22 791 6243; fax +41 22 791 6505
dma@wcrc.ch; www.wcrc.ch ( http://www.wcrc.ch/ )