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 of Korea),
Elizabeth Nash (United Reformed Church in the UK),
Bertalan Tamás (Reformed Church in Hungary) and
Olivia Masih White (United Church of Christ, USA).