We are all familiar with the compartmentalization which easily results from allocating responsibility for church activities to different church boards or committees. For more than a decade the Reformed Church of France (Eglise réformée de France, or ERF) has been trying to challenge this compartmentalization, and to let "fresh air" into its structures by focusing on the actual needs of the church.

The ERF is deeply concerned with its mission in and to a France at once strongly secularized and profoundly marked by Catholic culture. In a country of 58 million inhabitants, it has 350,000 members, while another 1.5 million French (including many Catholics) consider themselves "close to Protestantism".

In its meeting in Marseilles in 1989, the national synod of the ERF insisted that the mission of the church - to witness to its faith and to serve - is entrusted to all. No one can delegate it to others. This in turn demands that each church member be "equipped" for mission.

Starting from this emphatic reaffirmation of the "priesthood of all believers", the ERF refocused all its work around its mission. The work would be carried by two streams, currents or flows: to witness and to serve (témoigner-servir), coordinating outreach in mission, evangelism and diaconal work; and to edify and to train (édifier-former), coordinating biblical and theological formation, Christian education and worship.

The ERF believes in unity in diversity: that it is called to live the unity of all the different spiritual and theological trends that belong to its Reformed tradition. In Lyon, at the beginning of June this year, the national synod launched a new initiative called "Debates about 2000-2000 debates", a title that combines the contemporary and the plural in the context of participation.

"Debate" has a particular resonance for the French Reformed. "It is," says Michel Bertrand, president of the ERF's national council, "a fundamental aspect of the life of our church, in which, before God and hearing his word, we freely confront our diverse positions and construct our common convictions." It is Reformed Christians adopting a spiritual and civic-minded attitude to living out their faith in practical ways and communicating it within society.

Every local church and region is encouraged to stimulate debate around today's questions, involving as diverse discussion partners as possible. The aim is to bear witness to Jesus Christ at the heart of French society with its problems and projects, to deepen their own convictions and to restate them in ways relevant for today, to risk new ways of expressing and formulating things and to define the priorities needed for the church's life and mission.

"Today's women and men are being invited to sit down with one another and debate contemporary society's issues, convictions and hopes, " says the ERF. "Such debates could take very different forms: roundtable discussions, after-dinner debates, artistic expression, exhibitions... Free rein is given to the imagination!"

"Debates about 2000-2000 debates" was launched immediately after the synod with a series of weekend events held in different parts of Lyon: "Just some time", a musical show interpreting the aspirations of 800 young Reformed and what they think about the society in which they live; a panel discussion on "God and the media"; a "theological café" debating the power of lay people in the Church; and choirs, bands, orchestras and poets performing in different churches and public places.

Odair Pedroso Mateus/Páraic Réamonn