Note #9090 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06047 Feb. 2, 2006
Plan would unite 80 million Protestants in a new World Reformed Communion
by Ecumenical News International
GENEVA - The leaders of two worldwide groups of Reformed churches are planning to combine them in a new global body, the World Reformed Communion, that would unite more than 80 million Protestants.
"We ... believe that this new, united, Reformed body will be a blessing to the broader ecumenical movement and to the reconciliation of the world," the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), and the Rev. Douwe Visser, president of the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC), said in a joint statement.
Kirkpatrick is also stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
WARC, based in Geneva, has 75 million members in 218 churches in 107 countries; the REC, whose headquarters is in Grand Rapids, MI, has 12 million members in 40 churches in 25 countries.
Another 27 churches belong to both organizations, which have been in bilateral talks since 1998.
The member churches of the two groups trace their roots to the 16th-century Reformation led by John Calvin, John Knox and others, as well as earlier reform movements such as those of the Waldensians in the Piedmont valleys of Italy and of the followers of Jan Hus in the Czech lands.
The unanimous recommendation to create the new body to succeed WARC and REC came out of a meeting in Grand Rapids, where representatives of the groups met for two days ending Feb. 1.
It must be ratified by the governing bodies of WARC and REC.
Setri Nyomi, WARC's general secretary, hailed the recommendation, saying: "We praise God for this historic development. In a world filled with divisions, the Reformed family is signaling with this proposal that we are ready to move beyond our divisions."
Nyomi's comments were echoed by Richard van Houten, REC's general secretary, who said, "In the new World Reformed Communion, it is my prayer that our love and care for each other and our witness in the world will get an even better vehicle for expression than our two organizations separately have been."
If the proposal is enacted, all member churches of both bodies would become members of the World Reformed Communion, and other Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational, Waldensian, First Reformation, United and Uniting traditions would be invited to join.
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