I am very happy and deeply honoured to stand before you as your president elect. I admit that I have been overwhelmed by the surprise and the honor of it all. I did not think, when I came to Ottawa, that the outcome of it all would be this. Indeed, nothing was farther from my mind, and I had planned for myself a totally different agenda for my life in the years ahead. This conference has overturned that agenda, has overturned some priorities in my life. This has been so unexpected and so undeserved that I can only think and believe that God himself is speaking to me through the will of the general council. I thank you deeply for the confidence you have shown to me, and for the sign of commitment this represents, for the determination it represents: that the World Alliance of Reformed Churches want to give content and meaning to the words that we utter. We have taken decisions at this general council that will surely have a fundamental influence on the life of our churches and on our life together. I have come to the understanding that we are a family.

And we have in these past days experienced the pain of our brokenness, we have destroyed each other by divisions, but I believe that we have also discovered a love that goes much deeper than we had thought. And I believe that within this council we can find meaning not only so much because of ourselves but because of the love and compassion of God, so much greater than our human desires; and because ultimately our inability to love is transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit, who can make it possible for human beings to reach out to one another, who can make it possible for us to accept the truth that Jesus Christ has indeed broken down the walls of partition, who can make it possible for us to believe that the unity of his church is the desire of his heart. As we go away from here we face an ever-changing threatened and challenging world; we must find a way of remaining the church of Jesus Christ in this world, of loyalty to Jesus Christ alone, and our obedience to Jesus Christ alone.

And for all of us this will mean different things as we go back to our own countries and our own situations. I pray that God will give to each of us and our churches the courage to stand upon his word and to live out the obedience without which we will not be his covenant people. I hope that we will be able to reflect God's purposes for his world, that we will allow ourselves to be taken up by him as he moves towards the consummation of his kingdom.

As your president, I will endeavour to bring this message to our churches. I believe that we must become ever more of a family, and even though from the churches of the third world we have not much to give in terms of material goods, we do have a commitment to the gospel, a hope and a joy in our community in Christ together; a desire to love and be loved, and this we will want to share with other churches. To learn to take up each other's burdens and to share our common responsibility. We must learn anew how to embody in our faith and life the hope we have in Christ Jesus, how to show it through our unremitting struggles for justice, peace, human liberation, our choice for joyful abundant life which Christ has meant for the people he had died for. We must learn how to celebrate, even in the midst of the pain of the present, the joy of human freedom, by our participation in the struggle of oppressed people everywhere; we must learn anew how to remain faithful and humble children of God even while so many of us face the temptations of political and economic power. We must learn anew how to live and witness in such a way that our zeal for the Lord does not obscure the gospel from the world.

There are two things that I want to mention especially; in our decision taken yesterday as regards the South African situation and "apartheid", we have not only taken an historical step, we have also taken upon ourselves an awesome responsibility. I am thankful that we have been able to speak out as clearly and as unequivocally as we have and at the same time as pastorally as we have. I sincerely hope that the white churches of South Africa will accept this action in the spirit in which it was taken. This was not an amputation: we are not sending the lot into the wilderness. On the contrary, we refuse to let go of those churches; we want to affirm this, and we hope that they will see this as an opportunity to seriously reconsider their stance so that together, not only in the Alliance but also in the country where I come from, where the need to face the challenges together is so great, that we will learn to walk together and to find God's will for our land and for our churches.

Second thing: I sense a great deal of concern and unhappiness about the issue the women have raised this afternoon: I know that so many things have made it impossible for us to respond to that issue, in the way that many women would have wanted. I share that concern, I share the rightness of that cause. I am sure that the general council would join me in asking the new executive committee to invite a woman from Africa as a consultant to that committee, and I plead that the new executive committee will set in motion the machinery to enable us to respond to the legitimate demands made by the women delegates of this council.

I can think, brothers and sisters, of many reasons why you should not have elected me as your president. I am acutely aware of my shortcomings, but I am also aware of the power of God who calls people and who empowers them to become his instruments in the world.

I do not know what the future holds, I have many ideals for this organization that I love dearly; I am confident that God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a faithful God, so that one, even one such as I, can count on him to be true to his promise, not only for me personally, but for his church, and for this Alliance. I cannot continue without your support and without your prayers, and I ask you, please, to do that.

Let me share with you the words of 2 Corinthians 4, beginning at verse 5. "For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said "Let light shine out of darkness' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh."

In this spirit I humbly accept this responsibility to serve you, under God, who loves us all. Thank you.

This presidential address was delivered in plenary session in the afternoon of Thursday August 26 1982.