Does faith need the church? Putting faith into action does, Reformed church leader replies

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

World Communion of Reformed Churches  
News Release
01 February 2011
 
Does faith need the church? Putting faith into action does,
Reformed church leader replies
 
Swiss churches are asking if the church is necessary for people
to have faith. The question is prompted by statistics which show
that 80% of young people in Switzerland believe in God but only
20% feel close to a church.  
 
An interfaith group of panelists took up the debate at an open
forum hosted by the Swiss Federation of Protestant Churches
(FEPS) during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos,
Switzerland last week. The session on 28 January was titled “Does
Faith Need Religious Institutions?” 
 
In a response issued on Monday to the discussion, Setri Nyomi,
general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches
(WCRC), comments that the question should rather be “Does action
based on faith need the church?” 
 
The answer to that question is an unequivocal “yes”, Nyomi
believes. Noting that Tuesday, 1 February marks the start of the
first annual observance of a United Nations’ sponsored week to
promote understanding and peaceful relations among the world’s
faith groups, Nyomi says: 
 
“As we prepare to engage in the first World Interfaith Harmony
Week, we are conscious of how WCRC’s church-based programme for
justice offers individual Christians the opportunity to join with
people of other faith traditions and put their values and beliefs
into action for economic rights and environmental protection.” 
 
The Ghanaian theologian adds “This will broaden and enrich our
individual efforts to respond to the needs of the damaged and
hurting world that we share with our neighbours of all
religions.”
 
The General Secretary notes he agrees with the input of the
President of the Council for the Federation of Swiss Protestant
Churches, Gottfried Locher, to the debate about whether faith
needs the church. Locher, an officer of the World Communion of
Reformed Churches, indicated at the debate in Davos that the
church is “not just a human institution that we want to secure,
but a movement that ought to continue”.
 
“Clearly, it’s easier and more effective for an individual
believer to put his or her faith into action with a group of
believers than alone,” Nyomi says.  
 
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/ )