On 3-5th March 2011 the heads of the Council of Reformed Churches (The Council of WCRC Europe) led by the Head of the Hungarian Reformed Church Bishop Dr Gusztav Bolcskei, who is nearing the end of his term in office gathered in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.

The goals of the congress were to elect the council leadership for the new term in office, to approve the amendments to the council regulations, to discuss the World Communion of Reformed Churches held in the city of Grand Rapids, USA, last year, to consider the possibilities of WCRC Europe to contribute to the mission of the World Organization of the members of Reformed Churches and decide on the date for the Congress of WCRC Europe next year.

Almost all historical European Reformed Churches and their associations belonging to the World Communion of the Reformed Churches were represented at the Congress. The representatives of Portugal, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy were not present at the Congress but they sent their greetings and apologies for their absence. The Reformed Church of Lithuania was represented by the Vice Superintendent of the Reformed Church of Lithuania Rev. Rimas Mikalauskas.

During a few days of the intensive work at the Congress the leaders of Reformed Churches and their envoys approved the amendments to WCRC regulations, listened to two reports and had discussions on the topics of the reports, elected the Steering Committee of WCRC Europe for the new term in office. The Dutch pastor Jan-Gert Heeteriks was elected the President of the Steering Committee whereas Rev. Balazs Odor from Hungary and the representative of the Reformed Alliance ( Reformerten Bund ) Martina Wasserloos-Strunk from Germany were elected Vice Presidents. The Scottish pastor Alexander Horsburgh was reelected as the secretary and Kerstin Koch from Germany was reelected as the accountant.

Introduction on WCRC Europe

In June last year the two largest reformed organisations, namely the Ecumenical Reformed Council and the World Alliance of the Reformed Churches united into one organisation called the World Communion of Reformed Churches. This world organisation unites over 80 million christians of reformed and other close protestant denominations from 230 churches and their associations all over the world. Structurally, the World Communion of Reformed Churches is divided into 7 regions, i.e. Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, the Near East, North America and the Pacific. All of them are autonomous. The centre of the World Communion has remained in Geneva although after the two organisations united there have been suggestions to move the headquarters of the centre to another place and even to another continent. One of the possible locations is Johannesburg in the Republic of South Africa. Every region has its peculiarities but the European region alone made a decision in 2006 in Budapest that the European region will invite the heads of Reformed Churches or their authorised representatives but not the delegates of the churches. That is how WCRC Europe was formed. Its presidium consists of the President elected for 4 years and the members, namely since 2011 two Vice Presidents, the secretary and the treasurer. The secretary and the treasurer are not elected from the members of WCRC Europe. The members of WCRC Europe offer the candidates form the national churches. The head of the Hungarian Reformed Church Bishop Dr Gusztav Bolcskei was elected the first President of WCRC Europe in 2006. The Dutch Rev. Jan-Gert Heetderks was elected the Vice President. The Scottish pastor Alexander Horsburgh was appointed as the secretary and Kerstin Koch from Lippe church in Germany was appointed responsible for finances.

After the WCRC Europe regional reorganisation in the summer of 2006 WCRC Europe gathered at the beginning of 2008 in Paris and at the end of 2009 in Vuppertal, Germany. In the summer of 2010 at the World Congress in Grand Rapids, USA, WCRC Europe had its seperate meetings together with the delegates from churches of the European region. The meetings of WCRC Europe are planned to be arranged once a year in a different place. In 2011 WCRC Europe gathered in the Czech Republic. They were invited by the Evangelical Church of Czech Bretheren which arranged the congress and prepared the educational programme.

The Course of the Congress
Before the Congress all the participants gathered to the service with the Lord‘s Supper. The service was conducted by pastors Jan-Gert Heeteriks and Alexander Horsburgh and Bishop Dr Gusztav Bolcskei preached a sermon. The service was followed by the meetings in the conference hall at the Beranek hotel. The participants of the congress were honoured by the arrival of the guests, the top leaders of the World Communion of Reformed churches, i.e. the President Rev. Dr Jerry Pillay from Benoni, the Republic of South Africa, Secretary General Dr Setri Nyomi and the Secretary of theology department Dr Douwe Visser from Geneva, the Vice President of the World Communion Dutch Rev. Dr Bas Plaissier who is currently serving in Hong Kong Reformed Church, a guest from Minsk, the elder from Minsk Evangelical Reformed Church Aleksiej Frolov, the ambassador of European Council of Protestants Evelin Martin and other guests from the Evangelical Church of Czech Bretheren. The greetings from Swiss Rev. Dr Gottfried W. Löcher who was not able to attend the congress were read. He is the representative of the Steering Committee of the World Communion of Reformed Churches responsible for finances. Greetings from other repectable persons were also read to the participants of the congress. Later the minutes of the previous meeting were read. The participants discussed the implementation of the previous decisions.The congress agenda as well as the report of WCRC Europe President Bishop Dr Gusztav Bolcskei were approved. Kerstin Koch gave a financial report for the last year. Later on after discussions and considerations the suggested amendments to the regulations of WCRC Europe were approved. After the World Alliance of Reformed Churches discontinued its activity and the World Communion of Reformed Churches took over its rights and duties the regulations of WCRC Europe had to include the approval that it represents the European Region of WCRC.

At the end of the first day the participants of the congress had some time to share their thoughts about the congress held in the city of Grand Rapids, USA, last year where the World Communion was established.The delegates of the congress emphasised that the congress gave a unique opportunity to see the regional diversity of Reformed Churches as well as the perfect organisation of the congress. However, the democracy and procedure irregularities, a strong influence of feminist and socialist ideological groups and the clear signs of politicization attracted a lot of criticism. It made an unpleasant impression on some participants of the World Congress and it makes the Church pay more attention to such phenomena and their negative impact on the members of the Reformed Churches all over the world.

After the first day meetings the hosts of the congress invited all participants to dinner during which they were greeted by the head of the Church of Czech Brothers priest Joel Ruml.

On the second day of the congress the participants listened to some reports and had discussions on them. The first report about the vision for WCRC was given by priest Dr Jerry Pillay, the President of the World Communion. After that the participants divided into three discussion groups and later short summaries of the group discussions were given. The participants from Europe expressed their gratitude to the leadership of the World Communion for the great jobs they had done even though the resources available to them are very limited. The ideas were shared in what ways the European region could contribute to the implementation of this vision. Apart from the fact that the European region whose financial contribution to the World Communion mission is one of the greatest, it is believed that it could also contribute more by publications and doing theological work.

Other reports were given by Belgian representative Dr Guy Liagre and the representative of the German Alliance of Reformed Churches Prof. Dr Michael Weinrich. The first speaker gave a report on the future Reformed Theological Work in Europe, about the challenges and problems the theologists of Reformed Churches face in Europe. In the report it was pointed out that life challenges changes and the changes take place but they can become dangerous when they are influenced by dominating ideologies. The second speaker from Germany gave a report on the subject concerning the response to the CPCE report on Ordination, Episcopé and Ministry.The speaker underlined that the diversity of Protestant churches represent a challenge to the issues of unanimous ordination and ministry.

The congress accepted the date of the next congress to be at the end of March 2012. It will be appealed to the European Reformed Churches in order to find a Church which would like to host the congress of WCRC Europe. The congress ended with the service. After that a picture of all the participants was taken and the hosts of the congress invited everybody to dinner and the sightseeing tour of evening Prague and its Old Town.