WORLD REFORMED FELLOWSHIP
World Reformed Fellowship General Assembly 2022 PCA engagement Two of the 24 WRF Board members are from Presbyterian Church of Australia. While I’m just a board member, John McClean of […]
Reformed Thought for Christian Living
World Reformed Fellowship General Assembly 2022 PCA engagement Two of the 24 WRF Board members are from Presbyterian Church of Australia. While I’m just a board member, John McClean of […]
World Reformed Fellowship
General Assembly 2022
PCA engagement
Two of the 24 WRF Board members are from Presbyterian Church of Australia. While I’m just a board member, John McClean of NSW’s Christ College makes a valuable contribution to WRF by serving on its theological commission. More of the commission’s output later.
PCA’s representation at this year’s General Assembly is far in excess of expectation given the size of our denomination relative to all the others on this world stage. I’m grateful for the Aussie company of (L R) Wilson Fernandez, Kamal Weerakoon, John McClean and Corrie Nel: the fab five from down under. John’s other contribution was to deftly moderate the panel discussions.
While one could resort too easily to overstatements of self-praise, it’s nevertheless noticed by others around the world that the Presbyterian Church of Australia is a both a consistent financial contributor and a denomination that invests personally in this fellowship. We want to be world Christians. By engagement with theologians and other church leaders from the USA, Scotland, South Korea, Hong Kong, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Canada, South Sudan, India and South Africa I pray that we were a Christ-blessing to them as we listened to their experiences and shared their heart concerns. They certainly lifted and inspired us.
Why bother?
It’s to do with a wider perspective, mutual encouragement and purposeful advancement of the gospel.
I love the Greek that Paul uses here in the expression “all those everywhere” – while it’s still clear in the English – he uses the memorable duo of “panto” and “pantin” for “all” and “every” to describe the gospel’s reach.
WRF’s special projects
I mention four in particular (with a fifth one on the way).
It’s not intended to replace the traditional confessions of our churches, but this is composed by theologians wider in perspective than solely 16th century Europe. It is a freshly written summary of what we believe from a team of world scholars, and because it’s a 2011 production, it’s written in the light of some of the major issues which have faced the church throughout the 19th and 20th centuries such as liberalism, pluralism and postmodernism.
Since 2015, the WRF has made available this “Statement of Reformed Identity” and this also may be found here https://wrf.global/about/statement-of-reformed-identity.
This will shortly be found at the same place as the other two statements, but for now you’ll find it under the GA 2022 menu as a proposed statement.
Highlights from this year’s speakers
Were there any? Rather, the question is: what to leave out? This is just a sample.
As the writer of the book of Hebrews says: And what more shall I say? I do not have the time to tell about the preaching of Michael Aitcheson (former Kentucky Wildcats football star), Michael Allen or Rob Norris on worship …
You will find these addresses, and all the others, already available for watching on the WRF website here https://wrf.global/assembly/wrf-ga-2022-program-and-live-feeds.
The concert
This is the sixth General Assembly of the WRF and it seems that there’s a tradition: the host church presents a concert on the Friday night. After Stephen Tong’s exquisite 2019 presentation in Jakarta, we thought perhaps that there might be a letdown. But, no, First Presbyterian Church Orlando (FPCO) gave us a heart-warming and very high standard musical concert, ending with the tear-forming rendition of “Is he worthy?” … a powerful song written from the question posed and answered in Revelation 5.
The WRF Board
Finally, here’s a pic of the Monday morning Board meeting. Part of its deliberation being establishing the next theological commission project of a statement defining “ecumenism”. I was going to close with “good luck defining that”, but what I really mean is “we’ll pray for a good and helpful outcome.”