WCRC delegates are called to listen

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Delegates to the World Communion of Reformed Churches’ (WCRC) 27th General Council spent much of their time listening, including hearing reports on a Communion Statement, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, a Mennonite Action, and Justice. No formal action was taken on any of the reports.

Communion Statement

“Journeying Together in Covenant: A Call to Life in Communion” is a statement “that has been a long time in coming,” said the Rev. Dr. Anna Case-Winters of McCormick Theological Seminary. It is meant “for our understanding and to interpret to our partners.” Grounded both theologically and biblically, the document sets forth “not only who we are but what we mean to do,” while remaining “clear and brief.”

Three participants read excerpts from the statement, and five people offered responses.

‘Working With All the Partners God Provides’

This 58-point concept paper emphasizes the importance of both ecumenical and interfaith cooperation — work that has “lately become even more urgent.”

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“God is already out there, at work. Therefore, as we engage in ecumenical and interfaith work, we cherish a good hope for all, and we are prepared to listen and to learn from our conversation partners,” the paper states. “Our interaction is an opportunity for mutual illumination.”

Mennonite Action

This action was 500 years in the making, recalling a division sparked by the voluntary baptisms of adults in Zurich, Switzerland — a movement that led to the persecution of Anabaptists and centuries of estrangement.

“As Reformed Christians,” the document states, “we acknowledge that we have largely suppressed the memory of the persecution of the Anabaptists. We confess that this persecution was, according to our present conviction, a betrayal of the Gospel.”

That history was retold through a reader’s theater performance imagining a meeting in heaven between the Reformer Ulrich Zwingli and Anabaptist Felix Manz, co-founder of the original Swiss Brethren congregation in Zurich. Manz was drowned on Jan. 5, 1527, for defying an edict that made adult rebaptism punishable by death. Zwingli and the Zurich council accused him of obstinately refusing “to recede from his error and caprice.”

In heaven, the two figures begin to understand each other’s perspectives — even taking a symbolic river walk as a heavenly choir sings.

“We pledge to learn from each other by sharing the richness and diversity of our traditions,” the Mennonite Action declares. “We bind ourselves to purposeful cooperation that affirms God’s mercy and opens doors to the justice that leads to peace.”

‘Covenanting for Justice’

Among the presenters for this concept note was Dr. Seongwon Park of the Science and Technology Policy Institute in South Korea, who focused on artificial intelligence and the climate emergency.

The General Council “must seriously consider” declaring a “status confessionis” — a state of confession — in response to the climate catastrophe, Park said. He also called for a “processus confessionis” — a process of perceiving, clarifying, and confessing — “as we face the age of artificial intelligence.”

The Very Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne of the United Church of Canada, a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation from the central coast of British Columbia, was among the other presenters.

“Indigenous worldviews need to be centered in visioning for the future,” Lansdowne’s paper states. “Our deeply cherished understandings of the intricate webs of interconnected life in God’s whole created order are uniquely placed to help us re-form and be reformed from the unbridled neoliberal, end-stage capitalism that marks this period of our existence. Our elders know how to watch for the signs of an ecosystem in distress — or, even more importantly, how to live well in the abundance of God’s created order without taking more than we need.”

“Indigenous advocacy for an end to destructive economic and environmental systems is not only for our peoples but for all of us — for the love of the world that God loves,” Lansdowne continued. “This is what we mean when many of us say that all Indigenous theology is political theology — because theology without right action is not enough. Not anymore.”

The Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Executive Director of the Interim Unified Agency, led the PC(USA) delegation at the 27^th General Council of the WCRC. Read additional reporting here or here.