Reformed bodies merged at Mich. assembly

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The world’s largest association of Reformed churches can now break bread together as the World Communion of Reformed Churches following the merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council. The new union, celebrated Friday (June 18) during a global assembly at Calvin College, represents 80 million […]

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) The world’s largest association of Reformed churches can now break bread together as the World Communion of Reformed Churches following the merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council.

The new union, celebrated Friday (June 18) during a global assembly at Calvin College, represents 80 million Christians from 108 countries, in nearly 230 denominations worldwide.

“We live in a world that is fragmented and filled with conflict,” said WARC President Clifton Kirkpatrick, a former stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA).


“I cannot think of a better time to have what we accomplished today (become reality).”

The convention has attracted about 1,000 people from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Middle East and Pacific.

After more than 90 minutes of debate, a constituting document was amended to require half a church’s delegates to the WCRC’s general council meetings’ to be women. The drafting committee’s recommendation was one-third women.

Smaller churches, with fewer than 100,000 members, also saw the size of their delegations increased; larger delegations already were mandated to include at least one delegate 30 or younger.

Peter Borgdorff, president of REC, said a U.S. immigration worker denied visas to 73 delegates and students from Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Mexico and other regions of the world despite assurances earlier there would be no red tape. Borgdorff said it was unclear why they were denied access to the United States and vowed to find out why.

“The decision making seemed very arbitrary,” Borgdorff said.

Issues that remain to be tackled before the conference ends June 26 include women’s rights, economic oppression and environmental degradation. Special attention will be devoted to the Accra Confession that rejects “profits before people.”


The conference will stress the rights of Indigenous peoples and the church’s historic mistreatment of them. Tribal chiefs welcomed delegates Friday with a drumming ceremony. “So many treaties have been broken, so many promises not fulfilled,” said Mike Peters, a tribal member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa.

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