Reformed church group and mission council seek closer ties

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

>World Communion of Reformed Churches
>News Release
>27 February 2012

Reformed church group and mission council seek closer ties

The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) and the Council for World M 
ission (CWM) have issued a statement following a three-day meeting in Johan 
nesburg, South Africa between leaders of the two organizations.

Talks sought to chart new ways of working together. Participants at the tal ks 
included WCRC’s president, CWM’s moderator and the general secretari es of the 
two organizations.

WCRC is a global network of Protestant churches focused on theology, church  
unity and social and environmental justice concerns. CWM is a worldwide pa 
rtnership of churches sharing resources including people and ideas to enric h 
and enhance God’s mission in the world. Twenty-seven of 31 CWM churches  are 
also WCRC member churches.

>The full statement follows.

>Media Contacts:
>Kristine Greenaway
>Office of Communications
>Email: kgr@wcrc.ch<mailto:kgr@wcrc.ch
>tel: +41 (0)22 791 62 43; fax: +41 (0)22 791 65 05
>www.wcrc.ch<http://www.wcrc.ch/

COVENANTING TOWARDS A NEW ECUMENICAL ENGAGEMENT

COUNCIL FOR WORLD MISSION AND WORLD COMMUNION OF REFORMED CHURCHES

A statement from a Strategic Partnership Consultation

>Johannesburg, 21-23 February 2012

I have come that they might have life, and have it in all its fullness.         
               John 10:10

>Introduction

The Council for World Mission declares that its strategic purpose is “Ful lness 
of life, through Christ, for all creation.” The World Communion of  Reformed 
Churches states as its vision, “To live out the Communion of Ref ormed 
Churches, participating in God’s mission, that all may experience t he fullness 
of life in Jesus Christ.” Clearly the same Spirit is guiding  the two 
ecumenical organizations.  They have a history of joint working in  various 
mission enterprises both regionally and globally. Twenty seven of t he 31 
member bodies of CWM also belong to WCRC. We have gathered in Johanne sburg as 
representatives of CWM and WCRC to discern what the Spirit is sayi ng to us 
about the nature of our partnership at the present moment. This is  what we 
have heard.

>1. Towards a new ecumenical future

All around us we see ecumenical organizations on the brink of non-viability  as 
traditional funding sources dry up and enthusiasm becomes more and more  
difficult to sustain. A multiplicity of ecumenical instruments competes fo r 
the loyalty, energy and money of our member churches. The concept of “p 
artnership” is well-worn, with overtones of a previous age in which the g lobal 
North and West dictated the terms on which relationships would functi on. 
However, we are hopeful because we sense the birth pangs of a new ecume nical 
age. God is calling for new models of ecumenical work and witness. Se rious 
theological work will be needed to undergird the steps God is calling  us to 
take. We particularly want to pledge ourselves anew to the serious r eading of 
scripture together through a justice lens that will direct and en ergise our 
work in these challenging times. Together we affirm our understa nding of the 
call to partnership in mission as a calling to communion (koin onia).

>2.  Our journey

We have remembered how the theological and spiritual contributions of the R 
eformed family have changed history in the past. In the 1940’s and 1950 ’s, 
Reformed thinking helped to shape the Universal Declaration of Human  Rights 
and the United Nations. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches’ c ondemnation 
of apartheid was a catalyst which helped to bring that system t o an end. Most 
recently, the Accra Confession “Covenanting for Justice in  the Economy and the 
Earth” (2004) contributed to an analysis and a langu age that are now echoed 
around the world as people clamour for global econo mic justice and the 
safeguarding of creation. The Accra Confession served t o challenge unjust 
structures. Its work of deconstruction (which we recogni se to be ongoing) must 
be matched by new constructive work to offer the wor ld an alternative 
international economic architecture. We believe that the  world is hungry for 
the contribution that we can make.

CWM has a long history of engagement with local communities, having interpr 
eted and proclaimed the gospel as God’s gracious act of hospitality and l 
iberation.  With its focus on assisting and accompanying its constituent bo 
dies to live in solidarity with people struggling with life’s disparities  and 
searching for meaning and significance, CWM has demonstrated that just ice is 
the very heartbeat of missional engagement.  Through its sharing of  people, 
churches have welcomed the gift of a healthy partnership in mission , where the 
ethos of giving and receiving has enriched their prophetic witn ess.  
Programmes such as Training in Mission and Face to Face are means thr ough 
which thousands of young people have been exposed to cross-cultural le arning, 
empowered and encouraged to live their faith in the choices they ma ke in 
respect of vocation, social engagement and interpersonal relationship s.

WCRC and CWM have a history of working collaboratively, for example in the  
WARC Mission Project, Oikotree, and economic, climate and gender justice is 
sues.  We see the work on a New Financial Architecture, the International I 
mmigration Forum, the Global Institute of Theology, and the Training in Mis 
sion programmes as new frontiers of working together.

>3. Money

Both the WCRC and CWM are faced with the struggle and the contradiction of  
money in a world where money, and not relationships, defines power. The tho 
ught that these ecumenical bodies could be constrained by the challenges of  
money is a concern that we are committed to addressing together.  We have  
agonised with the dysfunctional social landscape in which we operate, where  
money, as a social currency, is given greater premium than it ought to hav e. 
We have acknowledged that the power dynamics associated with it consume  us and 
often prevent us from critiquing ourselves, and we agreed that there  is an 
urgent need for us to engage ourselves in a diligent examination of  the 
theology of money in this climate of economic and social injustice.  Re 
cognising that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”, we  affirmed 
that our resources belong to God and that our stewardship of thes e resources 
falls short.  However, our worship together, at the beginning o f the season of 
Lent, helped us to see with fresh eyes our need for peniten ce and hope.  
Having been reminded, and having considered, that in classica l Chinese writing 
the word “crisis” is represented by the two character s for “danger” and 
“opportunity”, we welcome this moment as an oppo rtunity to confess our 
complicity, embrace the values of our faith and reco mmit ourselves to living 
in faithful obedience to the God of justice, whose  gift of grace beckons us to 
act with grace.

>4. Driven by a common purpose

We therefore commit ourselves to identifying an ecumenical future which has  
our strategic purposes as its starting point. The two organizations are in  
significant agreement in defining these purposes. WCRC names its key direc 
tions as Communion, Justice, Mission, Theology and Ecumenical Engagement. C 
WM’s four priorities are the development of missional congregations, the  
deepening of partnership, the exercise of solidarity and prophetic witness,  
and reflection and research. The parallels are immediately clear. These pr 
iorities call us not only into deeper relationship with one another but to  a 
new openness to other partners who share our vision. We must enhance and  
strengthen our common global witness for justice. The commitment to communi on 
(koinonia) between our churches is an integral aspect of this witness.

>5. Location

Justice and communion are critical issues as we consider the matter of the  
location of offices, and location is an important element of the new collab 
oration between CWM and WCRC. CWM is on a journey and is in the process of  
relocating its office to Singapore. WCRC is now actively seeking to relocat e 
its office due to spiralling costs in Geneva and a need to relate more ad 
equately to the global reach of its churches. We note that we missed an opp 
ortunity for the two organizations to move together to a common venue so as  to 
facilitate joint working. However, we believe that there is a variety o f ways 
in which the two organizations can meet, and that there would be val ue in 
creating common meeting spaces. For example, we could hold meetings o f our 
governing bodies in the same venue so as to create opportunities to m eet 
together alongside the responsibilities of two separate agendas. Part o f the 
paradigm shift in the global ecumenical movement is the significance  of the 
global South and we hope that WCRC will take this seriously in its d ecision 
about relocation.

>6. Taking things forward

Because we believe that collaboration in this mission will enable our resou 
rces to have their greatest impact, we have proposals to ensure the nurture  of 
a new generation of ecumenical leaders, to enhance our work of justice  
together, to encourage our regions to work together and to ensure the finan 
cial viability of both organizations.  These will be brought to the WCRC Ex 
ecutive Committee meeting in May and the CWM Trustee Body meeting in June.