'The light will remain burning in all locations': WCRC President Jerry Pillay and Vice-Presidents Lu Yueh Wen and Bas Plaisier
'The light will remain burning in all locations': WCRC President Jerry Pillay and Vice-Presidents Lu Yueh Wen and Bas Plaisier (2013). Credit: Stephen Brown

WCRC gives thanks for 65 years in Geneva

 — Dec. 18, 201318 déc. 2013

[WCRC Reformed Communiqué] At a service in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) marked the more than six decades in which the Reformed church family has been based in the Swiss city. In January 2014, WCRC’s operating office moves to Hannover, Germany.

“We gather here to join our hearts in thanksgiving for 65 years of God’s presence,” said WCRC General Secretary Setri Nyomi. He recalled that the Presbyterian World Alliance, a forerunner of WCRC, moved from Edinburgh to Geneva in 1948 to be near to the newly-founded World Council of Churches (WCC).

The service on 5 December was attended by WCRC President Jerry Pillay and officers, current and former staff, representatives of Swiss and German churches, and sister organizations in the Ecumenical Centre, as well as the German Ambassador to Switzerland, Otto Lampe.

“We certainly thank God for the fact that … we could be physically part of a wider ecumenical family,” said the WCRC’s Executive Secretary for Theology and Communion, Douwe Visser, in his sermon. Above all, however, the period in Geneva, he said, was a time of being able to receive God’s word. “Looking at our 65 years of being with you here in Geneva from the perspective of God’s word given to us, we see so much to thank God for.”

The President of the Protestant Church of Geneva, Charlotte Kuffer, also bringing greetings from the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, said her church had been profoundly marked by WCRC and its predecessors. Thanking these churches for their support, Setri Nyomi said they would remain “custodians of the Reformed tradition that binds us together”.

Yorgo Lemopoulos, WCC Deputy General Secretary, and Kaisamari Hintikka, Assistant General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, promised that their organizations would continue to remain linked with the WCRC.

In his message, Jerry Pillay described the time in Geneva as a significant chapter in the WCRC’s life, and the move to Germany as a new chapter. “The chapters may be written in different places,” he said, “but it is the same book and the same story.”

A candle was lit by Pillay and WCRC Vice-Presidents Lu Yueh Wen and Bas Plaisier to mark the departure from Geneva. It was then passed to representatives of sister organizations, the Geneva church, and the German churches, including WCRC General Treasurer Johann Weusmann. He shared the flame with worshippers, who placed candles at the front of the chapel. “The light will remain burning in all locations,” said Nyomi.

Posted: Dec. 18, 2013 • Permanent link: ecumenism.net/?p=6957
Categories: News • In this article: World Communion of Reformed Churches Transmis : 18 déc. 2013 • Lien permanente : ecumenism.net/?p=6957
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