A Proposal for a Historic Union between the REC and the WARC

In 2005, the REC Assembly resolved to approach the World Alliance of Reformed Churches to propose a much closer relationship, that the REC become an "entity within" the WARC.

Later in 2005, the WARC Executive Committee agreed to the idea but with some more far-reaching options.

In January 2006, a joint committee of eight delegates proposed that the two organizations each disband and that the member churches together for a new organization, with the suggested name of the World Reformed Communion.

The committee drafted a foundational document that suggested a Basis on which the the new WRC would be founded. It also drafted a process proposal suggesting how the two organizations could move toward this goal together.

From February 2006, the member churches of each were asked to respond to the idea, and were given a year to react.

In March 2007, the REC Executive Committee met in South Africa, a meeting that was expanded by including the four advisors and four other representatives chosen at large. This expanded committee heard reports from members of the joint committee of 2006, and reviewed the reactions of the churches to the initial proposal. After two days of discussion, the committee endorsed the proposal, and included two major directions the REC would like to see included in the transition. Then the committee spent some time working on a time line and process, in the hopes that the transition could be accomplished in a shorter time frame.

In October 2007, the full Executive Committee of the WARC met in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The WARC Executive approved the proposal after lengthy discussion, and has proposed that the name become the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Their suggestions, in turn, were considered by the REC Executive, and the two bodies are agreed on these points:

• The name will be World Communion of Reformed Churches
• The union meeting will take place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, June 18-28, 2010 at the campus of Calvin College.
• A joint committee composed of four from each body will prepare the transition, including a constitution, articles of union, programming, financial transitions and staff transition.
• The two bodies will meet at the Executive level in October 2008, and in full Executive session in May 2009 for final preparations for union.
• Invitations to the meeting have been sent, and member churches are invited to nominate delegates before October 31, 2008.
• The North American members of both organizations have agreed to form a North American Arrangements Committee to host this historic gathering.

Historic Proposal for REC and WARC

In late January and early February 2006, a joint committee of two world reformed organizations proposed a dissolution of their two bodies and the creation by their members of a new body to be called the World Reformed Communion.

Eight delegates from the Reformed Ecumenical Council and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches met here at the end of January. After an intensive three-day meeting, the group agreed on a new step forward. The two presidents of the organizations, Douwe Visser of the REC and Clifton Kirkpatrick of the WARC, wrote in joint letter to their members:

We rejoice in the work of the Holy Spirit, which we believe has led us to recommend that the time has come to bring together the work of the World Alliance and the Reformed Ecumenical Council into one body that will strengthen the unity and witness of Reformed Christians. We also believe that this new, united Reformed body will be a blessing to the broader ecumenical movement and to the reconciliation of the world.

The REC and the WARC had an earlier round of conversations that led to cooperation in a few areas. At the REC Assembly in July 2005, the delegates resolved the REC should move intentionally closer to the WARC. They also wanted to preserve the identity of the REC. To do so, they proposed the REC become an entity within the WARC.

At the WARC Executive Committee in October, the WARC gladly accepted the invitation to talk, and suggested the process might go farther, with the two organizations becoming one new entity.

The REC had not carefully defined what "entity within" might mean. In discussions, the joint committee came to see the difficulties of an "entity within," while they believed they could also obtain many of same values for such an "entity within" in a new organization.

The foundational document that the committee drafted contains sections on the Name, the Basis, Membership and Affiliation, and the Callings for the new organization. The committee chose the name Communion because of the deeper ties implied in that word. It points to the Churches' oneness with Christ and with each other.

The Basis of the new body "shall be the Word of the triune God, incarnated in Jesus Christ, the foundation of the Church, and written in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This communion embodies the Reformed identity articulated in the historic Reformed confessions and continued in the life and witness of the Reformed community." These statements combined values of both organizations.

Likewise, the Callings or purposes of the WRC were ones important to each group now. The first calling listed, "To foster Reformed confessional identity and communion among Reformed churches for the sake of the whole Church," captured both the REC's sense of confessional identity and the new impetus to explore worship and spirituality in the WARC.

Similarly, the second calling, "To promote justice in the economy and the earth, and to work for reconciliation in the world," picked language from recent WARC processes, but with general directions also found in the REC family.

The committee took advantage of this opportunity to expand the idea of membership. Both organizations had been ones with only denominations as members, but in the new body, the draft proposes that other groups that agree with the Basis and Callings may have an affiliate membership.

The WARC currently has 217 members with about 75 million believers in them. The REC has 39 members with about 12 million believers. Twenty-seven of the REC members also hold membership in the WARC. The twelve REC members who are not in the WARC are generally smaller, and would add less than one million members to the total number of believers now in the WARC.