"When we baptize a child, we say, 'This child is received into the one holy catholic church'. Not into the Reformed Church in America - into the one church of Jesus Christ. You give us the opportunity to see if we mean what we say."

With these words, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), welcomed the executive committee of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, which is meeting in Holland, Michigan from July 26 to August 4.

For the RCA, a 300,000-strong US denomination that was one of the founder members of the Alliance, months of planning and special fundraising had paid off, and the pleasure was plain on the faces of those greeting the Warc visitors at Third Reformed Church in Holland.

"We are one church," Granberg-Michaelson told the committee, led by CS Song, president of the Alliance, and Setri Nyomi, its general secretary. "We offer you hospitality, not because we want to be polite, but because we belong to each other. We want to know you, to hear your stories of faith, to encourage and be encouraged by you."

A banquet for the Warc guests led into greetings and introductions, during which the double identity of the Warc president was revealed. A minister of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, CS Song also served the Reformed Church in America in the 1970s, and is still on the books of its Queens classis.

"We are met in the presence of God, and we do not meet alone." The opening worship brought forth from the treasury of Christian liturgy things both old and new, with music ranging from hymns from "Rejoice in the Lord", the RCA hymnal, sung to familiar tunes like the Old Hundredth, to the pulsating rhythm of John Rutter's "Toccata in Seven" and contemporary songs by John Bell of Scotland's Iona Community.

"We have sought to create a hymnbook that is biblical in its basic design, Reformed in its theological orientation, and catholic in its scope," says the hymnbook committee that produced "Rejoice in the Lord", the 1985 hymnal of the RCA. Edited by the late Erik Routley and published by Eerdmans, it follows the canonical order of the Bible, beginning with God's act of creation and ending with the great vision of God's eternal city.

The music was led by Linda Strouf, minister of music at Third Reformed, and the soloist was Linda Dykstra, professor of music at Hope College, Holland, where the executive committee members are housed.

Taking part in the service were officers and committee chairs from the Warc executive committee. Participants from the RCA were:

Douglas Fromm, associate for ecumenical relations;
Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary;
Anna Jackson, Queens Reformed Church, New York (who is also a member of the Warc committee); and
Kama Jongerius Zuidema, associate pastor, Third Reformed Church.

Pictures from the opening worship are available on the RCA website.

Third Reformed Church was organized under the leadership of Albertus C Van Raalte, founder of the Holland colony. The original building dates from 1867, but was destroyed in the great Holland fire of 1871. The present church, aptly described as "a structure of beauty and symmetry", was dedicated in 1874. The congregation has traditionally combined an active missionary outreach with a strong social awareness.