On behalf of the World Council of Churches and its general secretary, I bring warmest greetings to the World Alliance of Reformed Churches on the occasion of its general council in Debrecen, Hungary (8-20 August 1997). We celebrate with you the 120 years of history since the first general council meeting in Edinburgh.

The World Council of Churches acknowledges with deep gratitude the involvement of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and its member churches in the one ecumenical movement. Though diverse in theology and polity, the churches which share a common Reformed heritage are committed to a strong impulse for service to humankind as a sign of God's reconciliation. Your conviction that the communion table is the Lord's and not ours gives reality and meaning to the search for unity. Thus, we can affirm together that such a search for unity and renewal is not an option but an integral part of what it means to be the body of Christ.

The World Council of Churches is most grateful for member churches' responses as well as those of World Alliance entities to the Council's process on common understanding and vision. We note with great appreciation the statement that "WARC will continue to exist in solidarity with and in loyalty to the WCC. We accept the WCC as the principal ecumenical instrument and God's gift to the present century. We long for closer cooperation, division of labour, and coordination of programmes so that duplication can be avoided." Thus, it is important to note the collaborative studies undertaken with the WCC: gospel and cultures, ethnicity and nationalism, human rights,and the ecumenical decade: churches in solidarity with women, to name but a few.

As shown in the theme of this assembly, "Break the chains of injustice", you again demonstrate that you are willing to take on the hard issues for which a broken world awaits not only words but actions. Questions of international debt, the Christian faith and cultures, nationalism and ethnicity, humanity's place in creation, the building of inclusive community, women and violence, are difficult issues, but the addressing of them is vital for a relevant and courageous witness in our world.

We are gratefully aware of the broader ecumenical commitment of WARC expressed in the extensive range of bilateral discussions with other major Christian traditions. With WARC's active encouragement member churches have made real their commitment to visible unity in recent courageous initiatives, as in relationships developed through the Leuenberg concordat between Reformed, Lutheran and Methodist families. It is our hope that by their vote next week the Lutherans in the United States will join in the ratification as the Reformed churches there have already done.

As the WCC seeks a new configuration for the ecumenical movement that will give more attention to confessional and contextual diversity, the close bond with Christian world communions becomes even more essential. In this regard the WCC general secretary has proposed that the year 2000 should be used by the main Christian families of churches - Orthodox, Pentecostal, Protestant and Roman Catholic - to begin preparations for a universal Christian council. As a response the WARC staff suggested to the general secretaries of the WCC and the LWF to consider planning the general assemblies after the year 2000 in one place and at the same time (From Seoul to Debrecen, page 169, paragraphs 30 and 31). It would be the hope of the WCC that this council might take an action to bring such a proposal closer to reality. Would it be too much to hope that WARC might invite the LWF to enter into formal conversations for a global concordat possibly regarding full communion?

The WCC, along with WARC and other confessional families, has only explored the beginning of a journey that may take us to stations which at present we cannot yet imagine. Not only are we called to travel this road together, but we need each other. We need to continue to engage one another in creative and challenging questioning and reflection. In spite of all the uncertainties that surround us we believe that the ecumenical movement is a movement of the Spirit. Let us, therefore, move into the new millennium in the strong faith that we are called to move toward the unity which is God's will for the church.

It is our prayer that God will bless this council.