The John Knox Centre

"The John Knox Centre does a superb job in bringing together people from various continents and allowing them to feel the universality of the church. [The] centre does important work in an open and... Christian way."

So wrote Boneyku Ekofo from Zaire, following a 10-day leadership seminar in 1986. His comment illustrates the kind of mutual encounter and enrichment experienced by participants in the John Knox Centre programmes.

Training for the nineties

Since 1986, nearly three hundred representatives from member churches of the World Alliance, both women and men, have participated in seminar programmes at the centre. This number included pastors, seminary students, human rights activists, and other church workers from over fifty countries throughout the world. The seminar topics included the following:

Confessing Jesus Christ in Dialogue (1986)
Jesus Christ, Lord and Saviour (1986)
Confessing and Confessions of Faith (1986)
Living among Muslims (1987)
Forms of Solidarity: Human Rights (1987)
Who Saw Christ First? (1987)
Witnessing at Work (1988)
Mission and Unity (1988)

The development of seminar programmes has been an important part of the life of the centre, and these programmes also contribute to the work of the World Alliance. Most seminars have resulted in the publication of a volume in the "John Knox Series", which is widely distributed both within and beyond the Reformed family."

This new dimension in the life of the John Knox Centre is the result of great effort from a number of people. Since 1980, a team of volunteers from local congregations in Geneva and the ecumenical centre have been organizing annual seminars for young Reformed pastors and theological students mainly from European countries. This group constituted itself as a programme committee of the John Knox Centre and benefited greatly from the leadership of the Rev Dr William McCamish. The group organized the following seminars:

Traditional and Reformed confessions of faith (1981)
Who is the pastor? (1982)
The Ottawa general council in perspective (1983)
Called to Witness (1984)
Covenant for Justice and Peace (1985)

The financing of these annual seminars was through regular grants from the Presbyterian Church (USA). While thus paving the way, the group realized that more needed to be done for the member churches of WARC. However, there were serious limits in terms of time and money.

Ottawa/Seoul

As early as 1981, when it was necessary to appoint a new director for the centre, the question was raised whether a programme director assisted by a management committee should be secured. Given the circumstances, it was decided to hire a management director assisted by a programme committee. At the same time, the financing of seminars became a constant preoccupation for the committee. In 1984 a new concept was developed, both in terms of content and finance, for an expanded programme activity. The goals set were the following:

1. annual seminars for theological students and young pastors were to be continued;
2. leadership seminars were to be offered
3. occasional consultations were to be organized on issues related to WARC and its member churches.

This new concept was approved by the executive committee of WARC in 1984. A financial campaign was launched the same year with a goal of CHF2 million, 55% of which would be used to bring people to Geneva from all over the world and 45% to create a fund, the annual interest of which would help to cope with renovation costs of the centre's buildings.

This new venture of the John Knox Centre needed first to be understood by the potential donor churches within the Reformed family. At the same time, the centre started in 1986 with a series of three seminars to show that it meant to be an efficient instrument within that family.

The appeal to the churches resulted in the following results, grants and commitments:

by June 1 1986: CHF37,355
by June 1 1987: CHF399,813
by June 1 1988: CHF512,540

Thus 25% of the goal has been reached, mainly through the generosity of six churches in Switzerland and the Federal Republic of Germany, which contributed each CHF 60,000 to the centre's fund. Some twenty other churches, donor agencies and parishes, including churches from developing countries, also gave financial support.

To maintain and expand its present scope of activities, and to continue its service to the Reformed family of churches, the centre will need additional support from churches and agencies.

Within the context of the general council of WARC the centre's programme activities have now reached a crucial point. The WARC will probably take on a new profile in the nineties, with new commitments, new tasks, new challenges. It can rely on the John Knox Centre's readiness to help prepare the churches and their leaders in this last decade of the century for the challenges of the third millennium.

An international meeting place

When the centre came under the auspices of WARC in 1974, it was a student residence. In 1980, it converted one of its residence wings into a hotel room unit while continuing to welcome mainly American student groups in the other residence wing.

The availability of rooms with basic comfort, conference facilities and a cafeteria has attracted numerous groups of people related to the ecumenical centre, humanitarian and educational organizations, both in the area and from around the world.

The John Knox Centre in recent years has been able to close its annual accounts without a deficit and without receiving any church or agency money towards its operational budget. It must also be said that the centre is paying back a mortgage of CHF1.3 million.

The financial developments of the centre can be seen in three figures:

The John Knox friends could rejoice as they celebrated in 1988 the 35th anniversary of the existence of the institution in Geneva and the 25th anniversary of the present buildings. Over the years numerous people have generously given of their time to guide the work of the centre. A few shall be mentioned here with thanks:

Executive committee chairpersons:
1974 - 1985: Rev Hartmut Lucke
1985 - present: Rev Charles Odier

Programme committee chairpersons:
1980 - 1984: Rev William McComish
1984 - 1987: Rev Rudi Renfer
1987 - present: Rev Thomas Wieser

Building committee chairperson:
1974 - present: Mr Ted Braïda

Since the takeover by WARC, the John Knox directors have been:
1974 - 1981: Mr Michel Cluzel
1981 - present: Rev Jean-Jacques Bauswein