First appointments made
December 12 2000
Rev. Anna James has been named as moderator of the preparatory committee for the 24th general council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, to be held in the University of Ghana (Legon, Accra) from July 30 to August 12 2004.
James, a 37-year-old African American, is a minister of the Reformed Church in America, serving a congregation in New York. Three years ago, she was an RCA youth delegate to the 23rd general council in Debrecen, Hungary. There she was elected to the executive committee of the Alliance. Now she is being asked to head up the preparations for the next council.
"You just never know where God will lead you," she says. "The learning curve has been steep."
The biggest challenge facing the Alliance as it prepares for the Accra council? "We need to be creative," she says, "to learn from past models, but not to be tied to them."
"I would love to see our member churches really involve themselves in shaping the council," she adds. "We want them to play a major part in exploring the whole issue of life in fullness and what that means for our churches and our communities."
The other members of the preparatory committee are Warc president CS Song (Presbyterian Church in Taiwan), André Karamaga (Presbyterian Church in Rwanda), Kim Yong-Bock (Presbyterian Church in Korea), Elizabeth Nash (United Reformed Church in the UK), Bertalan Tamás (Reformed Church in Hungary) and Olivia Masih White (United Church of Christ, USA).
The Alliance has also agreed to appoint a team of three people to coordinate the preparations, with two of them to be based in Geneva, and the third in Accra.
Douglas L Chial, a 32-year-old lay member of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and assistant coordinator for the 23rd general council, has been named as one of the Geneva coordinators and will start work in July 2001. He is currently working with the World Council of Churches as a web editor.
"In a world in which young people are often sidelined with the excuse that they lack experience, we have in Doug a young person with the experience we need," says Warc general secretary, Rev. Dr Setri Nyomi. "It is rare to find a person who combines theological depth with a good knowledge of the new technologies. Doug exhibits great competence in both these areas."
Interviews for the coordinator in Ghana will take place in March 2001, with the person appointed expected to take up the post in May 2001.
The third member of the team is Hartmut Lucke, currently secretary for international relations in the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, relating with partners - mostly within the Reformed family - from China to North America, Africa to Australia. He will start work in Geneva in July 2002.
"Born in Berlin, he brings a personal consciousness of the impact of the past East-West divide," Setri Nyomi says of him. "He has worked closely with many of the ecumenical organizations to which we relate. As an ordained minister with more than thirty-five years experience of relating to churches in both South and North, he brings theological depth which we will need in planning the general council."
