"The time seems to have come when churches may more fully manifest their essential oneness, have closer communion with one another, and promote great causes by joint action." With these words, 64 delegates gathered from 21 Presbyterian churches in 1875 declared their intention to form an international Alliance to meet in general council from time to time. The first such council met in 1877. In 1891 the first International Congregational Council met, and in 1970, the two streams, Presbyterian and Congregational, merged.
At Debrecen we shall celebrate 120 years of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). But what, precisely, are we celebrating? Who are we, and what are we called to be?
WARC is a family of 208 member churches in 102 countries on six continents. We come from various traditions within the Reformed family descended from (or, in some cases, predating) the sixteenth-century Reformation: Reformed churches, Presbyterian churches, Congregational churches, and United churches which honour their Reformed roots. Connecting this global Reformed family is our special privilege. Our most important function is bringing people together: creating and sustaining a network of human interaction and solidarity between Reformed Christians and between Reformed churches.
The Reformed churches today have become a genuinely global family. Three-quarters of WARC member churches are found in the South: in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific. Until the 21st general council (Ottawa 1982), the influence of the northern churches was still dominant in the work of WARC. The seven years between the 21st general council and the 22nd (Seoul 1989) saw some progress in globalizing the Alliance; since Seoul there has been considerably more. More still remains to be done, but increasingly the many voices and varied theological perspectives of this worldwide family are heard and appreciated.
WARC is a Reformed family which is at the same time an integral part of the ecumenical movement. We cooperate with other Christian world communions (CWCs) and with the World Council of Churches, and we encourage our member churches to work for Christian unity. But we cannot contribute to the ecumenical dialogue unless we are immersed in our own Reformed tradition. We can speak and act only in the light of our heritage, but we have to struggle time and again for an adequate understanding of that heritage. Interpreting and reinterpreting the Reformed tradition is what makes WARC distinctive. Within the broader ecumenical movement, it is our special calling to be a forum in which the Reformed family can work together at this task.
Two points in our Reformed tradition continue to challenge both ourselves and others. The first is ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda. We say that the church reformed is always in need of reformation but, like churches in other traditions, we are often reluctant to change. The second is the universal priesthood of all believers, the ministry of the whole people of God-women as well as men, young as well as old, elders as well as ministers, lay as well as ordained. We affirm this principle as part of our heritage, but in all of our churches we are called to make it fully effective. "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (1 Cor 12.4f.)
The overarching theme in the history of the Alliance is a search for Christian unity and for human solidarity, a search set in the context of a passion for Christian witness and the worldwide mission of the church. This search does not present itself to us today exactly as it did to our 19th-century ancestors. We have learned that the only road to unity is to take our differences with great seriousness, whether these are differences of confession, of culture, or of gender. We have been engaged in bilateral dialogues with other Christian traditions to understand in depth the theological divisions as well as the commonalities as a way to move towards Christian unity. We have learned that Christian churches cannot flourish in a thin veneer of western culture superimposed on very different cultures but must be allowed to find their authentic expression within the cultures in which they live. We have learned that the differences between men and women cannot be bridged by denying the significance and the value of what distinguishes women from men.
We retain, nonetheless, the historic WARC emphasis on the unity of the Reformed family, the unity of the broader Christian church, and the solidarity of the human family in the context of the whole creation. We are still called to manifest more fully our essential oneness, to have closer communion with one another, and to promote great causes by joint action.
Therefore, we affirm the following as the ongoing purposes or goals of the Alliance:
1. to strengthen the unity and common witness of Reformed churches
  1. to serve as a clearing house for information about the life and witness of its member churches
  2. to promote communication and develop common perspectives among member churches
  3. to initiate discussion on confession and the church as a confessing community
  4. to help in overcoming divisions within and between Reformed churches
  5. to encourage cooperation between Reformed churches in areas and regions
  6. to develop a network of Reformed theologians and theological institutions
2. to interpret and reinterpret the Reformed tradition
  1. to study and encourage communication between the various theological traditions represented in the Alliance
  2. to reflect theologically on the urgent problems of the contemporary world
  3. to promote the renewal of Reformed worship>
3. to promote the partnership of women and men and a fully inclusive community
  1. to identify sources of injustice to women in the churches and in society, and to be an advocate of justice for women
  2. to encourage the churches to open their leadership structures equally to women and men in full partnership
  3. to model just relationships of women and men in its leadership, meetings,and delegations
  4. to encourage broad inclusion of youth in the life of the Alliance and its member churches>
4. to work for human rights, economic justice, peace and the integrity of creation
  1. to serve as an advocate for member churches in conflict with governments
  2. to participate in movements to overcome economic injustice, racism, violence and war
  3. to help Reformed churches to understand the fragility of our world and to work for an ecological balance
5. to promote dialogue with other Christian communions and other religions
  1. to represent the Reformed tradition in ecumenical dialogue at the world level
  2. to prepare Reformed churches and their members for active involvement in interchurch relations on local, national and regional levels.

What are we called to do?
Challenges, problems and possibilities

The Unity of the Reformed Family

The Reformed family has an unusually strong tendency to deal with family differences by division. In many countries several Reformed churches exist side by side. In other situations Reformed churches are threatened by new splits. In several countries, division has accelerated since the second world war. New mission work is undertaken by Reformed churches in an uncoordinated way, often in countries where Reformed churches already exist. A special problem is created by the uncoordinated and partly uninvited work of the "free lancers" and "independents" who are often supported by Reformed or Presbyterian parishes. A significant number of Reformed churches do not yet belong to WARC. Alone among the great Christian confessional families, the Reformed tradition has more than one international organization.
We cannot neglect the call to unity among Reformed churches. It must be stated that the present divisions are contradictory to and deny the gospel of reconciliation. The existing disunity and the ever-recurring splits within Reformed churches are a thorn in the flesh of the Reformed family.
Within the framework of WARC the problem was discussed in 1982 in Ottawa. It was addressed more systematically at the executive committee meeting in Cairo in 1984 and at a special consultation in New Delhi in 1985. It was taken up again at a consultation in Geneva (August 1988) in preparation for the 22nd general council in Seoul. The findings of the discussions in Seoul are still useful (Proceedings, pp.207-217).
Three meetings on the theme "Mission in Unity" were organized by the John Knox International Reformed Centre, and their results have been published in the John Knox Series. Some non-member churches found it easier to meet on the "neutral ground" of the Centre. Although WARC has participated in the John Knox Centre meetings and considers them as complementary to its own efforts, it is obvious that Reformed unity must also be addressed directly by WARC itself. It is the duty of WARC to remind the churches of Christ's call to unity, and to accompany churches attempting to achieve unity.
In several countries cooperation among the Reformed and Presbyterian churches has increased. It is encouraging that a Council of Presbyterian Churches has been created in Korea. The Reformed Ecumenical Council of Nigeria came into being in Nigeria. Associations of Presbyterian churches were established in Chile and Mexico. These and other situations (Zaire, Brazil) need to be studied further.

New Patterns of Collaboration

Several factors prompt us to develop a vision of WARC collaborating with other bodies in a new and creative way. These include better utilization of human and material resources, diminishing financial resources, and a genuine desire to cooperate.
16?The John Knox International Reformed Centre is administered by an Association which is legally independent of WARC, but which share the aims of making known the Reformed message in today's world and of Reformed cooperation within the ecumenical movement. In the past, it was sufficient for the two organizations to work together on the basis of an informal understanding. Recently new efforts have been made to define more explicitly the relationship between the programmes of the two bodies and to search for ways in which they could work together creatively. It is hoped that this agreement will be conducive to closer cooperation and strengthened programmes.
Several mission societies and other agencies such as the Council for World Mission, the Evangelical Community for Apostolic Action (CEVAA), the Basel Mission, EMS in Stuttgart and United in Mission in Wuppertal serve parts of the constituency of the Alliance. Besides these organizations there are mission boards of WARC member churches such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, Church of Scotland, the Swiss Protestant Federation, churches in the Netherlands, etc., which are often involved in overlapping programmes. WARC needs to explore with them whether there cannot be more effective links between us, and whether cooperation could not be achieved in a closer and more organic way. WARC should remind them of the open letter which was addressed to the member churches by the 22nd general council (Proceedings, pp.215-7) and is still relevant today.
The Council of Presbyterian Churches in Korea should be asked to cosponsor a consultation, together with WARC, on Korean missionary work around the world and its impact on the life of Reformed churches. The mission societies and boards should be asked for cooperation.
The Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) is an international grouping of 29 Reformed churches, half of which are also members of WARC. It was founded in 1946 (as the Reformed Ecumenical Synod). It is confusing that on the global level the Reformed family is represented by more than one international body. The "Mission in Unity" consultation at the John Knox Centre in May 1993 encouraged WARC and REC "to establish a joint committee to discuss issues of common interest with a view to promoting better understanding, clarifying matters that divide them, and fostering areas of cooperation". The 1996 REC general assembly in Grand Rapids (USA) reconfirmed REC's desire to establish a joint committee. WARC should agree to this proposal and pursue its implementation. Both sides should be ready to discuss difficult and delicate matters.
The search for unity among Reformed churches is not to be understood as any kind of negative confessionalism, or as a diversion from the search for unity at an interconfessional level. This emphasis is intended to deepen, not to undermine, the ecumenical commitment of the Reformed tradition. Reformed unity is not in itself the ultimate goal. It points to the wider unity of the church universal.

WARC in the Broader Ecumenical Movement

The roots of the ecumenical movement lie in recognition by European and North American missionaries that the inability of their churches to work together in mission was a scandal. This recognition bore fruit in the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910. The International Missionary Council was founded in 1921. The first Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work was held in Stockholm in 1925, and the first World Conference on Faith and Order, in Lausanne in 1927. Life and Work was concerned with Christian service and interchurch cooperation on social issues; Faith and Order, with the differences in doctrine and church order that Edinburgh had avoided. Growing recognition that their two sets of questions belong together led them to unite in the World Council of Churches: the first WCC assembly met in Amsterdam in 1948. The International Missionary Council merged with the WCC in 1961. In the ecumenical vision, as this outline history indicates, mission, unity and social witness are inseparable.
Today the World Council of Churches numbers 330 member churches, Protestant and Orthodox, in more than 100 countries. In 1948, nearly two-thirds of its member churches came from Europe and North America; today nearly two-thirds come from the south. The Roman Catholic Church works cooperatively with the WCC, and is a full member of the Faith and Order Commission.
WARC is grateful for the gift of the ecumenical movement. It has broken down walls of hostility between Christians of different traditions to an extent which, a century ago, would have seemed almost inconceivable. However imperfectly, it has helped to put flesh on the bones of our Reformed conviction that we are not sectarian but, precisely as Reformed, part of the universal church of Jesus Christ. WARC affirms the ecumenical concern to hold together mission, the search for unity, and social witness. Our continuing role and identity is within this broader ecumenical movement and not outside or in opposition to it. This role, however, must be a critical one. As everyone involved in the movement recognizes, it is time to pause and take stock.
Experience has chastened us. The goal of organic church unity now looks more complex, difficult and distant than our predecessors supposed. Cooperation between churches is not always easy. Also evident is a basic division between those Christians who accept their responsibility for the world (justice, peace, integrity of creation) and those who consider such a preoccupation by the church incompatible with their doctrinal position. In some circles in central and eastern Europe, ecumenical organizations are criticized on the grounds that they did not take a sufficiently clear stance on human rights violations by communist governments. We should not underestimate the impact of the attacks on ecumenical organizations from the conservative right (eg articles in the Reader's Digest).
Another complicating factor is the proliferation of ecumenical and confessional organizations. For example, a Reformed church in Brazil must participate simultaneously in the WCC, the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), CLAI/Brazil (an area council of CLAI), the National Council of Churches (CONIC); in its confessional organizations, WARC and AIPRAL; not to speak of offshoots such as the Ecumenical Confederation of Service (CESE); the Latin American Evangelical Confederation of Christian Education (CELADEC), etc. In Europe many Reformed churches are expected to relate to WARC and its European area council, but at the same time to CEPPLE (Conférence des églises protestantes de pays latins d'Europe), the Conference of European Churches and to the World Council of Churches. All organizations require moral and financial support. The burden is increasingly unmanageable. Many churches feel that they are suffering an "ecumenical overdose".
Discussion of the relationship between the WCC (as well as regional ecumenical organizations) and Christian world communions like WARC is long overdue, and from both sides should be pursued vigorously. It is obvious that the ecumenical movement is broader and larger than one particular organization. It would be false if one body claimed to be the exclusive representative of ecumenical ideas. On the other hand, it is justified to accept the WCC as the principal instrument of the ecumenical movement, and God's gift to the churches. There should be a division of labour, and programmes and projects should not be duplicated. WARC initiatives led to a consultation on Christian fundamentalism cosponsored with the Lutheran World Federation and the pontifical council for promoting Christian unity in 1993, a consultation on ethnicity and nationalism jointly organized with the LWF and the WCC in 1994, and a consultation on the theological imperatives for human rights in which the LWF and the WCC also participated. WARC, the LWF and the WCC will also work together on a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. These are good examples of cooperation.
It is an encouraging sign that the WCC is reviewing its relationship to its partners in the ecumenical movement. The draft report, "Towards a Common Understanding and Vision of the WCC", presented to the WCC central committee in September 1996, underlines the importance of the relationships between the WCC and the Christian world communions: "the Council must work for relationships marked by mutual accountability and reciprocity, and should look for ways to share tasks and resources with these ecumenical partners. We believe that a strong relationship with the WCC can be useful for the CWCs as they seek to avoid confessional isolation; just as a strong relationship with the CWCs can be useful for the WCC, reminding this fellowship of churches that ecumenical commitment is by no means incompatible with rootedness in an ecclesial tradition." (Par.4.3.3.)
WARC has been engaged in bilateral dialogue with other Christian communions since 1970. We organized a consultation in Princeton (April 1992) to evaluate these dialogues. This was an important step. However, it is necessary to examine the possibility of following up certain dialogues in a more concrete way. It would be helpful, for example, to develop a programme which would aim at a common position of the Reformed churches regarding the Roman Catholic Church. A special agreement has been reached with the Disciples of Christ. Can such a step be undertaken with regard to other Christian world communions? Can the Reformed churches take further steps towards a more visible unity among the Protestant churches?
The executive committee in 1996 endorsed proposals for a gathering of the Christian world communions in the year 2,000. It emphasized that Reformed participation in the event should be as fully representative as possible, to witness to our profound convictions concerning the nature of the church. It also called for consideration of the effect of a triumphalist celebration of the second Christian millennium on Christians in minority contexts.
WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser has proposed that the year 2,000 should be used by the main Christian families of churches-Orthodox, Pentecostal, Protestant and Roman Catholic-to begin preparations for a universal Christian council. The executive committee agreed that material interpreting this proposal should be prepared for delegates to the 23rd general council.
In the light of shrinking income, 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. The conference sessions could be held jointly, while the delegates would attend separate meetings for business sessions. WARC has received letters from member churches in Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and other countries strongly supporting this idea. It is not clear, however, whether the idea would be welcomed by all member churches that are not members of the WCC. The executive committee in 1996 authorized further exploration of the possibility of having such a combined world meeting.
What should be the role of WARC in the ecumenical movement? What is its distinctive contribution? The concept of ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda is our Reformed birthright and should not be forfeited. WARC can work towards a renewal of the church, its ministry and its mission, bringing its own agenda and offering its particular perspectives. New dreams and new visions are needed in a world that has become "globalized" ecumenically and "fragmented" culturally. In Europe secularization proceeds apace, and churches suffer a loss of membership. In many parts of the world churches need theological reorientation. Being Reformed means being ecumenical and dialogical; WARC should also pay more attention to interreligious dialogue. Characteristic of the Reformed tradition is the effort to establish an organic link between a profound biblical-theological reflection and practical action. WARC should mobilize its member churches to re-energize the ecumenical community, and help its member churches to meet the challenges facing humanity on the threshold of the 21st century.

The Solidarity of the Human Family

As Reformed people, we understand that God's work in the world reaches far beyond the church walls and extends to every area of human life, public as well as private. From the very beginning, the Alliance has been concerned with God's call to all nations for justice. It is God's will, we believe, that God's reign shall to be made visible in the world: a reign of peace and justice where all the human barriers of race, nationality, social status and sex give way for a new community.
We affirm our solidarity with all humanity, which we believe to be dignified by creation in the image of God. We recognize every human being as sharing our human nature, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, created, like us, in God's image. Therefore we work for the defence of human rights, cooperating willingly with all who share our concern for human dignity and well being. The Alliance is especially conscious now, however, of the chains of unjust economic relationships between the countries of the north and those of the south, since three-quarters of our member churches are located in the south and suffer disproportionately from the growing gap between the rich and the poor. We are determined that the delegates to the 23rd general council should be strengthened by a fresh vision of God's reign and find for themselves and their churches a new engagement in God's transforming work in the world, no longer willing merely to accept injustice and suffering as inevitable.
In dealing with economic justice and ecological responsibility, WARC can draw on the data provided by research institutes, UN agencies, NGOs, etc., but our specific task is to discern the theological significance of these data, to develop theological directions for the ecumenical community and to engage in serious reflection on the future of God's creation. The challenge of our times is that life itself is at stake.
With the ending of the cold war, the threat of a global nuclear conflict has receded. Yet the peoples of the world still pay a high price for militarism, violence and war, and the evidence of a continuing arms race is clear. There are some signs of hope: the renewal of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the signing of the comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty. But the challenges of disarmament and peace facing the international community are many, and WARC and its member churches, drawing on the resources of the Reformed tradition, must play their part in meeting them.
The crisis of the church and the deep-rooted problems of humanity are interrelated. WARC would contribute greatly to the ongoing ecumenical discussion if it could help to clarify the correlation between the renewal of the churches and the renewal of the world community. In a world which is dangerous and threatening, WARC should have the ambition to become a point of orientation and to offer theological leadership. Recent consultations have shown that WARC is in a position to advance the ecumenical discussion.

An Inclusive Community

With the other churches of the Reformation, we share an emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, the ministry of all God's people, but in practice we can be just as clerical, sexist or ageist as churches that do not. "We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love." (Eph 4.14-16). Christ calls us to community; and a church that is not an inclusive community cannot be a sign of the gospel, or an effective instrument of God's saving purposes.
In two respects, we have singled out this emphasis on inclusive community for programme work. The programme to affirm, challenge and transform: women and men in partnership in church and society (PACT) comes out of earlier work which led to a subsection on community of women and men in the 22nd general council. We have always insisted that PACT is not just one programme among many but ideally a catalyst to change all that we do. Our goal is partnership, a new unity which reflects just relationships between women and men. The series of regional PACT consultations has made apparent that, although significant progress has been made, WARC is only at the beginning of its task. This progress will need to be nurtured carefully in the years beyond Debrecen lest the momentum be lost, and it must be nurtured through all the activities of WARC. A next step may be for all our departments to evaluate their incorporation of the concerns of PACT into their own life and to consult with PACT about how that incorporation can be improved.
WARC organized its first international youth conference only in 1933. The Alliance was already 58 years old before youth appeared on the scene! It was not until after the second world war that youth began to take a more active part in its work, although this was for a long time limited to periodical world conferences of Presbyterian and Reformed Youth and to regular appeals at general councils by youth participants that youth should be allowed to play a larger role in the Alliance. The creation of a youth committee in 1991 and the secondment of a coordinator for youth concerns in 1995 mark, then, a significant change since Seoul, and give us cause to reflect on how, precisely, WARC may enable youth to play a fuller part in the work of the Alliance, while maintaining our commitment to ecumenical youth work, and without duplicating what is already being done by our member churches.

Regionalization

Both the growth in WARC's regional structures and the increasing emphasis on culture, context and diversity in our work challenge us to think about the relationship between the Alliance as an international fellowship and the regions of which it is composed.
In 1989, WARC had two long-established areas, the Caribbean and North American area and the European area; and a third area, newly founded, the Southern Africa Alliance of Reformed Churches. The 23rd general council will be asked to add two more: the Association of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in Latin America (AIPRAL) and the Northeast Asia area. In the Middle East, we have a growing, if informal, relationship with the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches (FMEEC). We need to think more deeply about regional policy, with respect both to regions that have area structures and to regions that do not.
The programme emphases of the Alliance (gospel and cultures, PACT, witnessing in context), as well as the style of programmatic work that we have developed since Seoul, also provoke this reflection. We have accepted, more radically than before, that there is a rich variety of voices in our family, and that all must be heard. We have tried to ensure that bilateral dialogue teams are widely representative. We have run series of regional consultations in preparation for international meetings, and we have drawn participants to international consultations from all of the regions.
Work in the regions is essential for implementing the goals and priorities established in Debrecen. We need also to promote contact between regions and area councils: in this respect, the cooperation between CANAAC and AIPRAL may serve as a model.
To have a member of WARC staff based in an area or region narrows the distance between the Alliance and the member churches in that region. In itself, it brings the Alliance closer to its constituency.

Mutual Expectations

WARC today is larger and better-known than in 1989, but its administrative structure continues to be modest. Seven executive staff and six administrative staff in the Geneva office are expected to service 208 member churches in 102 countries. They serve the Alliance with great faithfulness, but it is impossible for them on their own, or even with the help of regional staff and executive committee members, to do all that is needed.
For their part, member churches also face difficulties in relating to the Alliance. Some churches are rich in resources and employ national staffs that dwarf that of the Alliance; others are small and struggling and can afford only the services of a single full-time or part-time general secretary.
How can we improve the interaction between WARC and its constituency? What may we legitimately expect of each other?
In the years since Seoul, WARC has increasingly drawn on its executive committee members to complement the work of its staff. The executive committee in 1996 endorsed the following guidelines for its members and agreed to recommend them to the 23rd general council:
"Membership of the executive committee is not just a matter of attending the meetings of the committee. It means much more than that. The following guidelines indicate the expectations that the Alliance has of executive committee members.
1. to participate regularly in the meetings of the executive committee (at present, the committee meets annually, for a period of approximately two weeks);
2. to respond rapidly to letters and communications from the Geneva office (the languages currently used by the Alliance are English, French, German and Spanish; a working knowledge of English is particularly useful).
3. to be actively involved in the work of the departments and Committees to which they are assigned (Departments and Committees meet during the executive committee, and conduct other business by correspondence);
4. to become familiar with the history of WARC and its ongoing activities;
5. to be ready to accept official assignments on behalf of WARC (visits to churches, participation in consultations and other meetings, etc.);
6. to be actively involved in their own church and to act as a link between WARC and the church; in particular, to communicate WARC decisions to the church leadership and the church constituency (use of church press and other media);
7. to be a WARC "ambassador" in their region;
8. to make every effort to ensure that their own church pays its annual contribution and meets its other financial commitments to WARC, and to encourage other member churches in the region to do the same;
9. to be prepared to visit member churches in the region, to promote exchange of information, and to share any relevant information with the WARC office;
10. to become familiar with WARC's role in the wider ecumenical movement and with other ecumenical organizations and initiatives in their region;
11. to submit an annual summary of their activities on WARC's behalf."
In the period following the 23rd general council, it will be important for WARC to have regular contact with the delegates and participants. We envisage, near the end of the general council, a process of covenanting, in which the delegates will commit themselves to follow up the decisions of the general council in their own churches and regions. The work of WARC needs to be carried forward through the combined efforts of the staff, the executive committee and the participants of the 23rd general council, all working together with the member churches they represent.
It is essential to publish a study book soon after Debrecen which would include the main direction for the future as well as well as resolutions taken by the general council. Such a study booklet, published in an attractive form, should have as its aim a process of reception and study by member churches and their congregations.
In recent years WARC has not drawn sufficiently on the resources which lie in the theological schools and other institutions of higher theological learning. We need to develop a network of Reformed theologians to support our programmatic work in many fields.
Churches applying for membership of WARC are sent a letter which, among other things, spells out the responsibilities of membership. It says that the Alliance expects that its members will:
1. Be ready to share their particular gifts and their distinctive traditions with one another.
2. Be open to being challenged and changed by their encounters with other churches of the Alliance.
3. Take serious account of Alliance policies and concerns, seek to act on them, and make them widely known among their members.
4. Commit themselves to sustained dialogue with the Alliance, maintaining regular and effective communication with its officers.
5. Pay to the Alliance an agreed annual sum; or, where such payment is impossible, reach agreement with the Alliance on other appropriate means of support.
The Alliance can only function effectively if its churches take their membership seriously. It would be helpful if all member churches, old and new, would commit or recommit themselves to these responsibilities.
Perhaps it would also be helpful to have a WARC liaison person in each member church (perhaps a delegate to the general council) who would make sure that specific requests are attended to.
There is an urgent need to support and accompany new member churches. This can only partly be done by the visit of WARC representatives. It would be more efficient if member churches in the same country or in neighbouring countries would agree to commit themselves to accompany a new member church on a long-term basis.
From time to time WARC is asked to intervene in an internal conflict in a member church, or in a conflict between member churches. The mandate or the right of WARC to act in such situations, however, is unclear. Usually it is left to the pastoral wisdom of the WARC representative to address the problem. It would be helpful to have some guidance from our member churches as to what forms of intervention might be considered helpful and appropriate.
It is hoped that the 23rd general council will create a certain momentum which will be sustained and deepened. Hopefully study groups in member churches will continue. Twinning between congregations and churches needs to be encouraged. All these efforts should have one common goal: to strengthen the work of the Alliance as a forum for reflecting, from a Reformed perspective, on the burning issues of today, theological challenges, and church life.

Finance

Finance is a particularly difficult and sensitive area in the relationship between WARC and its member churches.
The difficulties from the Alliance side can be simply stated:
1. Only two-thirds of the income of the Alliance comes from the membership fees of its member churches; the remaining one-third is found through special giving by individual churches or church-related donor agencies in Europe and North America;
2. Roughly three-quarters of ordinary income (membership fees) comes from Europe, and roughly three-quarters of that from member churches in Germany;
3. Roughly one-fifth of ordinary income comes from North America, and more than four-fifths of that from one church in the USA;
4. Each year, almost half of the member churches contribute nothing.
The financial responsibility for WARC cannot lie only with the churches in Europe and North America. This would be an unbalanced and unhealthy situation. It is a question of mutual responsibility and accountability of all the churches which belong to WARC.
The difficulties from the side of the member churches can be stated even more simply. Because of the great, and growing, disparities of wealth between different countries and different regions of the world, the same contribution in money terms which for one church is a relatively insignificant part of its expenditure may be for another church an insupportable burden. In many parts of the world, the general economic situation has worsened, often severely, since the 22nd general council. Many member churches find themselves today less able to contribute financially than in 1989.
In Seoul, the following addition was made to the by-laws to the Constitution: "Membership of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches implies that each member church is ready to support the work of the Alliance through an annual financial contribution reflecting the resources of that church or, where that is impossible, through comparable support in goods and services, or through the support of partner churches.'
WARC recognizes that many member churches contribute to the work of the Alliance in ways that do not show on the balance sheets: through hosting consultations, for example. The department of finance has begun to record such services in kind in its annual statement of accounts.
Even more importantly, WARC recognizes that the presence of each of its member churches in the life of the Alliance is itself enriching, and that the absence of any member church impoverishes all.
As a sign of solidarity and in the interests of mutual responsibility and mutual accountability, however, it is absolutely necessary that each member church should, through one means or another, make a minimum financial contribution. It may be that this minimum contribution should be rather lower than in the past, or set on a sliding scale taking into account the situation of the churches.
The executive committee in 1990 set the level of contributions at 0.025 Swiss Francs per member or 500 Swiss Francs, whichever is the larger. This should be reexamined at Debrecen, and new recommendations made. At the beginning of each year member churches should pledge to WARC the amount that they can expect to pay in the course of the year.

How are we called to do it?
Staffing and Structures

Global

In the preparatory material for the 22nd general council, it was said: "The hard facts at present are that financial support from member churches is barely adequate even to maintain the Alliance's executive staff at its current level (ie general secretary, Theology Department Secretary, and Cooperation and Witness Secretary); and the current staff is insufficient to carry out and oversee existing Alliance programmes." (From Ottawa to Seoul, p.116) Seoul accepted the truth of this statement and agreed that, if and when finances permitted, the executive staff should be expanded from three to seven.
It is still the case today that ordinary income from member churches is inadequate even to maintain three executive posts. Remarkably, given that hard fact, the Alliance nonetheless succeeded in expanding the Geneva staff from three executive posts to seven: adding an Assistant to the general secretary, executive secretaries for PACT and Communications, and a Coordinator for Youth Concerns. This development is positive and laudable.
The expansion of the headquarters staff has naturally extended both the scope and the depth of our work. To return now to the staffing levels of the 1980s would be a major setback for the Alliance. These appointments were only possible, however, because of a combination of special funding and secondment, and their future is uncertain.
It is inherently unsatisfactory that several of our executive staff posts are financed by special funding or secondment. Special funding is often time-limited, and puts the work of Alliance at the mercy of those agencies or churches making grants. Secondment privileges richer member churches (except where a member church agrees to provide the funds for a secondment from another member church, or another part of the world), and makes WARC dependent on the financial situation of the seconding church. Core staffing should not depend on special funding or secondment. Seconded staff should augment a core staff already in place. In the real world, we may frequently have no alternative to accepting special funding or secondment to fill a post; but this should be clearly recognized as a compromise.
In 1970, the post of Information Secretary was absorbed into the post of executive secretary in the department of cooperation and witness. The 22nd general council recognized that this arrangement was unsatisfactory. The information and publication work of the Alliance was different in kind from the other work of the department and required different skills. To do this work effectively and responsibly, a full-time executive secretary for Communications would be required. Experience confirms this judgement. The post of a Communications secretary is an essential part of the core staffing of the Alliance, and some means needs to be found to continue it into the next century.
Community of women and men is on the agenda of WARC and its member churches today as never before. But we have still a long way to go, in all of our churches, before we achieve a full partnership between women and men. The day when the PACT programme becomes redundant is still far off. The executive committee in 1996 recommitted itself to the work of this programme. The necessary means to continue this post in the future needs to be found.
The main task of the Assistant to the general secretary has been to administer the partnership fund and the central and eastern Europe fund. More than one way of providing future assistance to the general secretary can be envisaged, but if this post does not continue in its present form, some provision in staffing must be made for the continuing administration of the funds. It will be proposed at Debrecen to merge the two funds. The partnership fund will continue to play an important role in the relationship between WARC and its member churches.
Organizing the Reformed youth forum has helped to clarify the long-term goals of youth work in the Alliance. There is a job to be continued: networking, informing, and raising awareness in member churches, and cooperating with ecumenical organizations. With or without the help of a Youth Coordinator, this is a task the Alliance must now take seriously.
Ideally, the international staff of the Alliance should remain at roughly its present level: twelve or thirteen executive and administrative staff. It should be clearly understood by the member churches that any decrease from the current level of staffing will seriously damage the work of the Alliance. Throughout its history, to avoid making excessive appeals for funds to its member churches, WARC has intentionally kept its staff small. In itself, this is a good thing, but it places severe limits on how far we can retrench when times are hard.

Regional

The idea of regionalization needs to be further explored after Debrecen. It will be important to elaborate an equitable and transparent regional policy. The executive committee, area committees or councils, and member churches in the regions will need to explore the desirability of adding further areas to the our structure. Regionalization must not lead to fragmentation. Area councils or committees must work closely with the executive committee; and all staff, whether headquarters staff or regionally-based, and whether full-time, part-time or volunteer, must be seen as a single team under the leadership of the general secretary.