wfn.org | Taiwanese Theologian Elected as President of WARC

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

27-August-1997 
97331 
 
    Taiwanese Theologian Elected as President of WARC, 
    Kirkpatrick Elected to Executive Committee 
 
    by Stephen Brown 
    and Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
DEBRECEN, Hungary--A prominent Taiwanese ecumenist, Choan Seng Song, was 
unanimously  elected  president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches 
(WARC) Aug. 18 by the organization's General Council, which met Aug. 8-20. 
 
    Song, a minister in the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan, is professor of 
theology at the Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological 
Union in Berkeley, Calif. He has been president of Tainan Theological 
College, the Asia secretary for the Reformed Church in America, associate 
director of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of 
Churches and director of studies with WARC's theology department. He was 
"strongly endorsed" by his church for the post. 
 
    Song was the only candidate proposed by a nominations committee to the 
General Council.  He succeeds Jane Dempsey Douglass, a member of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and faculty member at Princeton Theological 
Seminary, who has served as WARC president since 1990. 
 
    The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the PC(USA) General 
Assembly, was one of 32 delegates elected to WARC's executive committee. 
The executive committee  governs the affairs of the Alliance between 
councils, which occur approximately every seven years. 
 
    Elected vice presidents and members of the executive committee were the 
Rev. Andre Karamaga of the Presbyterian Church in Rwanda, Olivia Masih 
White of the U.S. United Church of Christ and Pieter Holtrop of the 
Reformed Church in the Netherlands. 
 
    Elected department moderators and members of the executive committee 
were the Rev. Kim Yong Bok of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, department 
of theology; the Rev. Elizabeth Nash of the United Reformed Church in the 
United Kingdom, department of cooperation and witness; and Herbert Ehnes, 
National Church of Lippe (Germany), department of finance. 
 
    In addition to Kirkpatrick, the other at-large members of the executive 
committee are Bukelwa Hans of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa, 
the Rev. Coutinho Moma of the Evangelical Congregational Church in Angola, 
the Rev. Nyansako-Ni-Nku of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, the Rev. 
Ruth Ngaare of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Lydia Aku Eleblu of 
the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana and Florentine Ramambasoa 
Rasoarivao of the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar. 
 
    Also, the Rev. Dong Il Kim of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, Emilio 
Capulong of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the Rev. 
Suputhrappa Vasthakumar of the Church of South India, the Rev. Lal Eng Zau 
of the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar, the Rev. Karel Phil Erari of the 
Evangelical Christian Church of Irian Jaya (Indonesia), Posinda Adonia 
Titaley of the Protestant Church in the Moluccas (Indonesia) and the Rev. 
Joseph Sahadat of the Presbyterian Church in Grenada. 
 
    And the Rev. Bertalan Tamas of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Margrit 
Leuenberger of the Swiss Federation of Protestant Churches, Gunilla Gunner 
of the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden, Hermenegildo Mendez Garcia of the 
National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala, Thania Izarra de 
Torrez of the Presbyterian Church of Venezuela the Rev. Aureo Rodrigues de 
Oliveira of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil and the Rev. 
Roberto H. Jordan of the Reformed Churches in Argentina. 
 
    As well as Phyllis Airhart of the United Church in Canada, Anna James 
of the Reformed Church in America, the Rev. Paul Haidostian of the Union of 
the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, the Rev. Elekosi 
Viliamu of the Congregational Christian Church in Samoa (Western Samoa) and 
Douglass (as former president). 

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