The Alliance installs Setri Nyomi as general secretary
Geneva, St Pierre cathedral, April 9 2000
On Sunday 9 April 2000, Rev. Dr Setri Nyomi of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, became the first non-European to be installed as general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
Acknowledging the new responsibilities he had been given, Dr Nyomi offered thanks in advance to the Reformed family "for all that we will do together to make a difference in a world which is so much in need of transformation."
"Our Reformed parents had a vision of a dynamic reformation," he said. "Even in the 16th century, our forbears envisaged a dynamic relationship with people of every age and cultural reality."
In his first sermon as general secretary, Dr Nyomi told the congregation in Geneva's St Pierre cathedral that God was calling and shaping an Alliance which would truly be a servant community, working for increased justice in poor communities leading to peace. God was calling and shaping an Alliance which, like salt in food, made a difference wherever it was found. God was calling and shaping an Alliance which was not afraid to make such a difference that its light was seen.
"The ways in which continued reformation takes place include our response to challenges and realities in our communities," Dr Nyomi said. In today's world, the list of challenges is long. Many countries are faced with heavy debt burdens and the evil effects of globalization. Many people are uprooted as a result of conflict or natural disaster, or affected by HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Young people struggle to have their voices heard, and in many communities the gifts of women go unrecognized.
The new general secretary told the cathedral congregation that in the first parish in Ghana where he had served as a pastor there was a community with a small salt industry. Visiting parish members there, he would see salt spread out at the side of the road to dry. Just lying there, it did nothing. Sometimes unobservant people would even walk on it. Taken and put in soup or some other food, however, the salt became wonderful seasoning. It made a difference.
"Let us be God's instruments for making a difference in our communities and in a world which is in need of transformation," he concluded. "May God bless us all."
In his exhortation to the new general secretary, the Alliance's president, Prof. CS Song of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, read a poem he had written specially for the occasion.
"For you, Setri Nyomi," he said, "this day is the future - a future that inspires you to dream new dreams in the midst of old..."
For the Alliance too, Prof. Song emphasized, the day was also the future - a future heavy with 125 years of history, a future in which it was called always to swim against the tide of conventional ecumenism.
The cathedral of St Pierre is Geneva's most famous church. From there the 16th-century Calvinist Reformation spread out to embrace the world. The dean of the Cathedral, Rev. Dr William A. McComish reminded the worshippers of the distinctive Reformed understanding of the church. "We are the people of God," he said, "all of us together."
In a cathedral bedecked with flowers in the national colours of Ghana, Setri Nyomi was introduced to a congregation representing the 215 member churches of the Alliance around the world by the outgoing general secretary, Prof. Milan Opocensky of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.
Together with his wife, Akpene, Dr Nyomi was presented for installation by the moderators of two Ghanaian churches: Rt Rev. JY Ledo of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, and Rt Rev. Dr Sam Prempeh of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
He was ceremonially welcomed as general secretary by five people symbolically representing different aspects of the Alliance:
- the longest-serving member of Warc staff, Ms Margaret Owen;
- the president of the National Protestant Church of Geneva, Rev. Joël Stroudinsky;
- the president of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, Rev. Thomas Wipf;
- the president of Princeton theological seminary, Rev. Prof. Thomas Gillespie; and
- one of the three vice-presidents of the Alliance, Dr Olivia Masih White.
The service of installation was preceded by a three-day meeting in Geneva of the officers of the Alliance to consider its future with new leadership in a new century. The meeting began in a new style, by tearing up the agenda and, instead of hearing reports from staff, focusing on the headline issues facing the 125-year-old fellowship:
- the need to make the Alliance more relevant to its membership - and to bring the membership closer to the Alliance;
- the call to member churches to engage at all levels of their life in recognition, education, confession and action regarding worldwide economic injustice and environmental destruction;
- the need for more effective communication with and within the whole Reformed family;
- the challenge to break with structures that were straitjacketing the Alliance's small staff and to find new ways of working as an integrated team;
- the need to widen and deepen the Alliance's financial base; and
- the 24th general council, due to be held in four or five years' time.
"Let us together make the Alliance truly the Alliance of 75 million sisters and brothers," President Song said in his poem on Sunday. "Let us always renew the Alliance to serve women and men, to energize young and old, to strengthen the weak and the dispossessed."
The future has begun.
