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.

www.wcrc.ch

World Communion of Reformed Churches
News release
December 1, 2010

Internationale Konsultation Südafrika: Reformierte Kirchen analysieren Auswirkungen der globalen Wirtschaftskrise

Vizepräsident Weusmann (ERK) erinnert an ständigen Dialog zwischen Kirchen in Deutschland und Südafrika
(WARC/RWB, 2. September 2009). Eine Zusammenkunft von reformierten Kirchen weltweit beginnt diese Woche in Johannesburg, Südafrika; im Zentrum der Debatten wird die Rolle stehen, die die Kirchen bei dem Ruf nach wirtschaftlicher Gerechtigkeit und Schutz der Umwelt zu spielen haben.

Pressemitteilung des Reformierten Weltbundes

Internationale Calvin-Konferenz in Budapest

Ein Bericht von Lajos Békefy
Europäische Wissenschaftler haben sich in Budapest zu einem internationalen Calvin-Symposium getroffen. Die Fachtagung mit über 200 Vorlesungen fand statt im Rahmen der Jahresversammlung des Kollegium der Doktoren der Reformierten Kirche Ungarns vom 24. bis 28 August 2009.

Dr. Lajos Békefy
(WARC, Juli 2009) Christians are increasingly articulate critics of economic, social and environmental abuse. What is often missing for ordinary people in those critiques is an idea of what they can do to make a difference at home, in their parishes and in the broader community.
(WARC, 25. August 2009) The Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu will be following God's will by taking a leading role in efforts to reverse the effects of climate change according to the leader of a global alliance of Reformed churches.

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Tuesday, 25 August 2009, 9:04 (EST)

Calvin als Aktivist für den Umweltschutz

Vor 453 Jahren verurteilte der Reformator das Roden von Wäldern
Das Roden von Bäumen sei eine ''Grausamkeit'', die besonders unter Christen zu finden sei, habe Calvin schon 1555 gepredigt, sagte Setri Nyomi, Generalsekretär des Reformierten Weltbundes auf einem Seminar in Vanuatu.

Barbara Schenck

'Jene 14 Tage kann man nicht vergessen'

Wie ungarische Pfarrer DDR-Flüchtlinge betreuten
1989 bröckelte die Mauer nach Ungarn. Beim „paneuropäischen Picknick“ flohen über 600 DDR-Bürger. Lajos Békefy erinnert sich an die Tage als Pfarrer im Flüchtlingslager.

Lajos Békefy

die reformierten.upd@te 09.2

Das reformierte Quartalsmagazin / Juni 2009
In diesen Tagen erscheint die neue Ausgabe von die reformierten.upd@te 09.2. Die Themen: Das Reformierte Zentrum auf dem Kirchentag und der Calvin-Festakt in Berlin - aktuelle Meldungen aus dem Reformierten Weltbund - die Predigt von Peter Bukowski zu Psalm 68 im ARD-Fernsehgottesdienst aus dem Französischen Dom zu Berlin am 12. Juli 2009

Jörg Schmidt, Generalsekretär des Reformierten Bundes, 10. August 2009

Church of Scotland begrüßt Entscheidung, den Lockerbie-Attentäter aus der Haft zu entlassen

''Eine Botschaft für die Welt, was es heißt, Schottisch zu sein''
Edinburgh (ENI). The (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland has said it fully supports a decision taken by the Scottish Government on 20 August to release the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, on compassionate grounds. ''This decision has sent a message to the world about what it is to be Scottish,'' the Rev. Ian Galloway, convenor of the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland, said in a statement. ''We are defined as a nation by how we treat those who have chosen to hurt us. Do we choose mercy even when they did not choose mercy?''

Barbara Schenck
As Reformed churches worldwide prepare to celebrate the 500th anniversary on 10 July of the birth of Protestant Reformation leader, John Calvin, leaders of a global movement of Reformed churches have issued a statement calling on Christians to commemorate Calvin not as a saint but as a source of inspiration for responding to contemporary social and environmental concerns.

Pressemeldung des WARC, 8. Juli 2009

Reformierte Kirchen sagen: Calvin machte aus Genf die internationale Stadt, die sie heute ist

Genf: Stadt Calvins und Stätte eines internationalen Calvinismus
(WARC/RWB) In Genf soll am 10. Juli eine kirchliche Gedenkfeier den 500. Jahrestag der Geburt Calvins, des Vorkämpfers der protestantischen Reformation, markieren. Diese Feier soll dem Einfluss des französischen Reformators auf die internationale Ausstrahlung und das Profil seiner Adoptivstadt gewidmet sein.

Pressemeldung des Reformierten Weltbundes vom 7. Juli 2009