All good things must come to an end, and this general council is no exception. And before it ends, we must record our thanks to the large number of individuals and institutions on whom the council has depended.

First among these must be the Reformed Church in Hungary who invited us to this historic Reformed city. Debrecen and its Great Church have given us a magnificent setting for the 23rd general council, and the Reformed college and teacher's training college have provided excellent facilities for our work.

Not only did the host committee do its preparatory work conscientiously and thoroughly; it also welcomed us with open arms, surrounding us with Christian love and hospitality. To Rev Bertalan Tamás, who chaired it, and was its moving spirit; to the presiding bishop, Guzstáv Bölcskei, who has been so constantly with us; and to the core team at Debrecen who have seen to our every need: Mr Attila Papp, Mrs Irén Seifert, Dr Vilma Kiss, Rev Zsigmond Vad, Mr Zoltán Tarr and, I am sure, many others unknown to me, we express our warmest thanks.

A highlight of our stay for many of us has been our visit to parishes elsewhere in Hungary or in neighbouring countries. To all involved in making those arrangements, whether here or at our destinations, we say thank you for an unforgettable weekend.

Our thanks are due not only to the Reformed Church in Hungary but also to the state. We are indebted to the president and the prime minister of the Republic of Hungary; the speaker of the House of Parliament, for his presence with us and for his address; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the department of Immigration, who granted visas at the Budapest airport for at least a third of the delegates. Without their cooperation we could not have had such a representative council, or experienced Hungarian hospitality.

We are also grateful for the security personnel who have been with us throughout the entire general council, and have been impressed by their obvious concern when we tried to cross the road at the wrong place or time. We greatly appreciated the army's goulash in the Great Forest, as we enjoyed the entertainment offered in the amphitheatre. And the executive committee were honoured to be received by the mayor of Debrecen.

To all these people, too, a warm vote of thanks.

"Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." We have been keenly aware of the magnitude and the seriousness of the issues we have been wrestling with, and we know very well that without God our efforts can only be fruitless. And so we depend on the continual renewal of our frail resources in worship. That renewal has been amply provided through the work of the worship committee. To all of them; to the leaders of morning and evening worship; to the music animators; to the sisters of Grandchamp; to the organist of the Great Church and the famous Debrecen Kántus; to Sándor Berkesi and Ferenc Kádár for the Debrecen theme song and to Fred Kaan for the 23rd general council theme song: our most grateful thanks.

Essential as spiritual replenishment is, physical sustenance is no less necessary, and with that too we have been generously provided in the dining halls of the two colleges. The cooks and other staff have worked hard to feed us, and most of us are going home with tighter waistbands than the ones we brought. Our caterers have been among the most important people here, and we thank them heartily.

Some of us have needed bodily care of a more specialist sort, in that a number of delegates have taken ill. They in particular owe a debt of gratitude to the two doctors who have been in attendance: Dr Pamela Cressey and Dr Bela Juhasz, and all of us have been comforted to know of their presence.

And of course no one has taken better or more constant care of us than our stewards. We had an opportunity earlier to acknowledge our appreciation of what they do for us; but I'm certain that we would wish to include Mr Zoltán Tarr and his team in our thanks again today, as we would wish to thank the students that assisted in the work of the college staff, especially in enabling delegates to communicate when Hungarian was essential for being understood.

Communication is what a general council is all about, and without the corp of interpreters and translators, the general council just wouldn't have happened. Speeches could not have been understood and documents could not have been read. Without Dr Darrell Guder and his organizational skill and dedication to the Alliance we would have been a tower of Babel. Without the secretaries and typing pool who worked long hours day and night, we should quickly have ground to a halt. Without the two print shops and their dedicated staff, we'd have had no documents to discuss. They all deserve our thanks.

Communication wasn't confined to our formal sessions; it took place, too, in the Bible study groups, and we are grateful to the contributors to the study notes and to Dr Stephen Farris, their coordinator, as we are to the group leaders. And the agora was another important place for meeting, talking. sharing and learning, and we thank Ms Anne Hadfield and her helpers there.

Communication was the heart of the visitors' programme which played an important part in enabling the many visitors to follow more closely the work of the Alliance. We thank Rev William Perkins for his leadership in this programme.

There are so many men and women who have contributed to our happy experience here: the artist, Ms Nancy Chinn whose banners enhanced both the beauty of the Great Church and our understanding of our theme; the men of the college staff who risked their lives in mounting them on the pillars; and countless others about whom I don't know, or whom, to my shame, I have omitted, and to whom I apologize accordingly.

But there are still some that we do know, including, of course, our general secretary and all the Geneva staff, for whom the preparation of the council has been a growing preoccupation over the last year or two. And chief among them, in this connection, are Rev Bob Lodwick and Mr Doug Chial. We can only guess at the efforts they have made to ensure that this event would happen as smoothly and efficiently as possible, and we can only marvel at how successful those efforts have been. To the Alliance staff, and in particular to Bob and Doug, a very big "thank you" indeed.

Now that a new executive committee has safely been elected, it may be that the council would wish to thank the retiring executive for its work since Seoul. I have been a member of that committee, and naturally feel inhibited in singing its praise. So I shall confine myself to saying that it has been a remarkably fine body of men and women, outstanding in their natural gifts, unequalled in their dedication to the Alliance and tireless in their efforts to promote its interests. Modesty prevents me from inviting your applause, but I have a high embarrassment threshold, should you wish to offer it unasked.

About my final duty, though, I have no inhibitions at all. I have been asked, Madam president, to thank you, particularly on behalf of the executive committee and the Staff, for presiding over us for the last 7 years. I am genuinely grateful for an opportunity to pay public tribute to you for your leadership. The circumstances in which you assumed the presidency in 1990 were not of the easiest, but you rose to the occasion without apparent effort, and immediately established an authority which we were grateful to recognize. Those who have worked most closely with you know best how unremittingly you have worked for the Alliance, despite your heavy professional commitments, and how constantly you have carried it in your heart. The Geneva staff have been supported and encouraged by the way you have kept in close touch with the office; and your colleagues on the executive committee have been consistently impressed by your conduct of our meetings. Your familiarity with the topics under discussion, your unfailing grace, your firm direction of business, your continual good humour, and your inexhaustible patience (which we have often sorely tried) have been instrumental in making the executive committee the happy and (I believe) effective body it has been. For that, and for the friendship which you have unstintingly offered, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.