Representatives of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and of the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) spoke enthusiastically to Update about the joint REC-WARC committee, which met in Geneva for three days in January.

"We were very pleased at the friendly reception from our hosts," said REC general secretary, Richard van Houten, whose offices are based in Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA). "We believe there is a new openness for cooperation and perhaps collaboration between our two organizations."

"We celebrated what we have in common as Reformed organizations and the ways in which our programmes can be complementary," said Setri Nyomi. "This meeting and the earlier one two years ago are signs of a firm commitment by WARC and REC to serve our member churches more effectively, consolidating available resources and not duplicating efforts."

Joint REC-WARC committee

The two international Reformed fellowships have quite different origins, but over the last half-century have been moving closer to each other. One sign of this convergence is a growing overlap in their constituencies: 23 of the 38 REC member churches and 214 WARC member churches belong to both organizations. "This adds to the reasons we need to work together," Nyomi says.

Other REC participants in the meeting were Douwe Visser (REC executive committee) and Jim Lont (REC secretary for youth and Christian nurture). Other WARC representatives were Pieter Holtrop and Gunilla Gunner from the WARC executive committee.

The meeting was the second in the current series, following an earlier meeting in October 1998. Twice before, in 1967 and in 1987, attempts were made to organize talks between REC and WARC, but in both cases they ended after just one meeting. Now there seems to be a new interest in coming together.

Some common programme work may be the result. On the agenda for discussion were such programme areas as mission in unity - an area in which REC and WARC have long had a common interest - youth work, international dialogues, leadership development, theological education, women's ministries, the church process on covenanting for justice in the economy and the earth, and work on interreligious relationships. Improved communications and networking will be one outcome of the meeting, along with some sharing of study processes.

REC and WARC both have an assembly or general council meeting scheduled for 2004. The joint committee discussed both the benefits and challenges of the schedule. One way the organizations might draw closer is to have similar themes for these international gatherings.

For the REC participants, it was an opportunity not just to meet their Alliance counterparts, but also to visit the WARC offices and meet the whole Alliance staff.

"People, place, paper," muses Jim Lont. "You can read paper but not understand...until you are with people at their place. That was our privilege in Geneva. Now prayer for each other takes 'shape', so God knows that we know who we're talking about where. You can't help but love the friendly hardworking staff. Why, they're like us! I'm eager to meet and work with that next youth secretary (small hint)!"

Richard van Houten sounds one note of caution. "The sharing we are committed to is a good start," he says, "but real cooperative ministry will need more conversation and trust-building. The members of WARC should realize that the disparity in the relative size of our organizations makes REC a little careful about entering a situation where our values and interests might be swallowed up by a larger partner. So we look for good relationships in the future, but will need time to let them develop in a way that benefits both organizations."

"In a world which often gets puzzled by the divisions they see in the Reformed family, these meetings indicate a clear commitment on the part of the leadership of both organizations to seek more collaborative models of working to the glory of God," says Setri Nyomi. "I welcome this move, and remain open to the leading of the Holy Spirit on where these discussions will lead."

The joint committee will meet again in October 2002.

Páraic Réamonn