Overseas Letters

All of us like to receive letters. We invite you to open some of these "Letters from Overseas." Share them with your community of faith, and read about the work and life of the global partners of The United Church of Canada and the overseas personnel currently serving with them.

Recent letters can be found on the General Council web site: http://www.united-church.ca/sharingpeople/letters/home.shtm

Letters from John Asling, overseas personnel in Geneva, Switzerland

March, 2008

Dear United Church of Canada friends:

Greetings from Geneva and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) where with God’s grace and your support, I continue to work as Executive Secretary for Communications and as an Overseas Personnel Associate for the United Church of Canada.

Once again I thank you for your continuing support of the Mission and Service Fund, which helps make my work here possible.

These are exciting and incredibly busy times here at WARC as we prepare for the merging of WARC and the Reformed Ecumenical Council in a uniting General Council to be held in June 2010 at Grand Rapids, Michigan.

That historic meeting will formally create the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), an organization that will represent 80 million Reformed Christians around the world. The theme of the meeting will be: “Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace.”

You will recognize those words from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians: “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4: 1-6)

These words remind us of the importance of healing the divisions in our hearts and in our churches and ecumenical organizations. They also suggest that it is worth celebrating when two Reformed organizations come together “to maintain unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

The new WCRC already has a short basis of union, which reads:

“The basis of the World Communion of  Reformed Churches (WCRC) shall be the Word (John 1) of the triune God, incarnated in Jesus Christ, revealed in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and witnessed to by the Church. This World Communion of Reformed Churches embodies Reformed identity articulated in historic Reformed confessions and continued in the life and witness of the Reformed community.”

And the new WCRC already has a set of key callings:

-          to foster Reformed confessional identity and communion among Reformed churches, and unity in the whole church;

-          to promote justice in the economy and the earth, and all of God’s creation, and to work for peace and reconciliation in the world;

-          to encourage the renewal of Reformed worship and spiritual life as a global family of God’s people;

-          to strengthen leadership development and the nurture of the covenant community;

-          to promote the full participation of women and youth in all aspects of the church’s life;

-          to renew a passion among Reformed Christians for God’s mission, both witness and service, in a spirit of partnership and unity;

-          to interpret Reformed theology for contemporary witness and for the unity of the church.

That’s a lot of words, I know. But I think it is a clear reassurance that the new WCRC will adhere to the traditional biblical call to try and understand the will of God in every context and do justice in the name of Jesus Christ.

What does the merger mean?

For the United Church of Canada, it means the opportunity to belong to a broader, stronger international Reformed body where our witness for justice and peace has a greater chance to be broadcast to a world in dire need of healing balm.

For the wider ecumenical community, the merger is a reminder that God’s grace allows Christians to move beyond their differences and make common cause for the sake of preaching and acting out the gospel in a vibrant way.

For the small secretariat at WARC in Geneva, it means a great opportunity to help play midwife in the birth of an exciting new Reformed church organization and plan the uniting General Council that launches it.

All of us in Geneva need your good prayers in the coming months. May God bless us all in our continuing journey to justice and wholeness.

Sincerely,

John P. Asling
Executive Secretary
Communications
World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC)

September, 2007

Dear United Church of Canada friends:

Greetings from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) in Geneva where I work as Executive Secretary for Communications and as an overseas personnel associate for the United Church.

Do you remember this call to unity in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians?

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4: 4-6)

What would the church in Canada look like if it were unified? What would the church look like worldwide if it were one body? What a powerful model of reconciliation and justice-making the church would be!

Clearly we are not there yet, in Canada or internationally.

As WARC’s general secretary Setri Nyomi, a Presbyterian from Ghana, says, “It is a shame that there are so many divisions within the Christian family – especially within the Reformed family. This shameful tendency calls us as Reformed Christians to engage in some house cleaning within our own family.”

He added: Reformed churches around the world are called to engage in God’s mission – together. They are called to work for the transformation of the world – together. Part of that mission is clearly being fulfilled.

“Our vocation includes mission and making a difference in the world. The church is therefore called upon to bring the good news to all in our communities as well as in lands beyond our communities,”  Nyomi said earlier this month in a gathering celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

“In many parts of the world Reformed churches are at the heart of health care delivery, education, advocacy for justice, peace, good governance and eradication of poverty. We understand these to be part of our calling.

“Today, a blind spot in our mission engagement is how we do mission in disunited ways. There are countries in which there may be five or six Reformed churches which are not collaborating. This is not a good witness.”

The general secretary’s words are particularly important now as WARC staff members here are busy preparing for a meeting of our Executive Committee, which is made up of about 40 volunteers from around the world who meet every two years to set policy and direction for WARC. WARC is a fellowship of 214 churches in 107 countries with a combined membership of 75million people.

The theme of the meeting to be held 18 to 28 October at Port of Spain, Trinidad, is: Called to be a communion: from Elmina to Port of Spain.

I think I would like to ask for your prayers during those days as WARC’s leaders will be considering several very important issues related to the unity of the church:

-          whether to approve the formation of a wider ecumenical organization with the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC), a smaller Reformed body that has approved the move in principle;

-          how to continue the conversation begun within one of WARC’s networks on whether WARC should move from being a loose knit fellowship of churches to a communion of churches with a greater sense of mutual commitment, accountability and vulnerability;

-          how to continue to work for an ecumenical assembly of Christian communions;

-          whether to readmit into the Alliance the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika (Dutch Reformed Church), which at one time supported apartheid;

-          how to stand together as churches in our rejection of slavery today, 200 years after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

I don’t want to pretend that any of these issues are simple and that we should be praying for one outcome over another. But they are critical to the Reformed world and its witness in the ecumenical community on a planet that is crying out for signs of reconciliation. So I just ask that you take a moment sometime in the next month, whether in your personal prayers or in a worship service, and remember these Reformed leaders from around the world who will be grappling in some small way with the future shape of the worldwide church.

The United Church of Canada is a key member of WARC, supporting a variety of programs, and so you have a stake in the deliberations in Trinidad. While there is no United Church member on the Executive Committee, there is a Canadian, Stephen Kendall, principal clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. You may want to lift up his name in prayer in particular.

If you want to send me any of your thoughts and prayers before or during the upcoming meetings, please feel free to do so at john.asling@warc.ch . I will share them as widely as possible.

Sincerely,

John P. Asling
Executive Secretary
Communications

June, 2007

Dear United Church of Canada friends:

Greetings once again from Geneva and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) where I serve as Executive Secretary for Communications and as an overseas personnel associate for The United Church of Canada.

Have you heard about the big birthday celebrations?

In 2009 many Reformed Christians from around the world will be headed to Geneva to mark the 500th birthday of John Calvin; many more will find a way of paying tribute to the great reformer in their own backyards.

While planning is still underway, there should be a number of events for everyone from ordinary church folks to theologians and church leaders.

A number of groups, including WARC, the Protestant Church of Geneva, the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, the Theology Faculty of the University of Geneva and the John Knox International Reformed Center here are collaborating on the Calvin Jubilee.

A special website will soon be set up to keep people informed of the various Calvin Jubilee activities.

In the meantime, Calvin’s Auditorium, where Calvin and other reformers preached and where the principles of the new Reformed Protestantism took shape, has a new look, thanks to modern stained glass windows created by the French artist Udo Zembok.

Geneva’s International Museum of the Reformation, which is housed on the spot where the city’s citizens voted to adopt the Protestant Reformation in 1536, was recently awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize and is an important place to visit.

In addition, WARC’s publications Calvin’s Economic and Social Thought by André Biéler (published in cooperation with the World Council of Churches) and, Renewing the Church: Resources for Celebrating Reformation Sunday, are available (www.warc.ch) for those who want to learn more about Calvin and the Reformation.

Why should United Church members care about the Calvin Jubilee? John Calvin, who was born in 1509, is regarded as one of the most important church reformers. To get in touch with Calvin is to get in touch with our Reformed roots.

In April of this year, a group of 50 theologians from around the world gathered in Geneva to focus on the significance of Calvin’s legacy for Christians today. They said that while Calvin is a continuing source of inspiration for the church, there are several stereotypes associated with him.

The stereotypes include:

 -          he fostered a grim concept of double predestination where God elects some for salvation and damns others;

-          he imposed a moral austerity on the people of Geneva;

-          he is a father of both capitalism and prosperity-oriented spirituality.

While not wanting to characterize Calvin as a saint, these theologians stated that he was an outstanding Christian witness whose legacy deserves new interpretation.

“Calvin belongs to the second generation of the Reformation movement. Through his teaching and his life he has decisively contributed to the consolidation of the Reformation. The range and coherence of his thinking have made possible the building up of Reformed churches… Without Calvin, the Reformation would have taken a different course.”

The theologians offered eight aspects of Calvin’s teaching that might provide “fresh access” to his legacy:

1.      Calvin’s commitment to proclaiming the glory of God;

2.      Calvin’s determination to place Jesus Christ at the forefront of all our thinking;

3.      Calvin’s emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in creation and salvation;

4.      Calvin’s engagement with scripture;

5.      Calvin’s determination that God’s will be brought to bear on all areas of life;

6.      Calvin’s insistence on God’s gift of creation;

7.      Calvin’s realization that the church is called to discern, in ongoing ways, its relation to the principalities and powers of the world;

8.      Calvin’s commitment to the unity of the church.

An upcoming edition of Reformed World, WARC’s theological journal, will present some of the papers written for this consultation. You can order Reformed World by going to our website (www.warc.ch).

Perhaps it is worth taking some time to study Calvin personally and in our congregations over the coming months, as preparations begin for the Calvin Jubilee, not for any cultic worship of this flawed reformer but because he might, in his own significant way, help to keep us focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As Calvin wrote in 1535: “Without the gospel, everything is useless and vain; without the gospel, we are not Christian; without the gospel, all riches is poverty, all wisdom, folly before God; strength is weakness and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God. But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, fellow townsmen with the saints, citizens of the kingdom of heaven, heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom the poor are made rich, the weak, strong, the fools wise, the sinners justified, the desolate comforted, the doubting sure, and slaves free. The gospel is the word of life.”

Whether you decide to mark the Calvin Jubilee at home or join us in Geneva, now is a good time to get to know this outstanding figure of the Protestant Reformation in your personal reading or in your congregational study. Don’t forget the WARC resources I mentioned above!

It will be good to be reminded of where we have been as a church and, maybe in our reflecting, catch a glimpse of the future as well.

See you in Geneva!

Sincerely,

John P. Asling 

March 2007

Dear United Church of Canada friends:

Greetings from the Communications Office of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The other day I heard another one of those heart-wrenching stories that have become all too prevalent in our daily lives: a nurse returned from a busy day of meetings to find her grown daughter stabbed to death in her home.

It was another in the litany of acts of violence against women.

This story came out of Africa but it could just as easily have taken place here in Switzerland where there is growing recognition of the problem of violence against women. Or it could have happened in Canada where the issue continues. Violence against women knows no boundaries.

And the predicament is getting worse.

That is why WARC’s Office for Church Renewal, Justice and Partnership focuses so much of its attention on violence against women, gender injustice and their underlying causes. The office’s recent statement on International Women’s Day (8 March) was a case in point.

The escalation of violence against women cannot be separated from the prolific levels of violence unleashed by powerful global forces, said the statement authored by my colleague Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth.

“Women cannot be emancipated until patriarchy is dismantled and this aggression by powerful global forces ceases,” she added.

 “Women in the West cannot be liberated while war is being fought in their names and nations are being bullied into submission by those on a quest for a hegemonic place in the world. The fundamental divide between North and South and the demonizing of other people’s religions and cultures must be a concern for all women who seek justice and freedom.”

Sheerattan-Bisnauth called for a revival of women’s activism and resistance movements both locally and globally. There must be a dialogue of women from all parts of the world and including all classes, races, nationalities and religions, she said.

“As we grapple with the tension within our specific context, we must have eyes for the larger picture, addressing not only our specific needs but also the larger global struggles,” she said.

Patriarchy, as Sheerattan-Bisnauth reminds us, is the root cause of much of the brutal military and economic violence against men, women and children in the world today.

“People have been driven out of their homes, forced to flee refugee camps; children are dying from enforced economic sanctions; soldiers are killed or maimed; civilians are slaughtered daily. Human rights abuses are being carried out every day in most horrific ways.

“Women are systematically raped, abducted and forcefully displaced while dowry-related deaths, honour killings and female genital mutilation continue with impunity. Trafficking in women and girls for sexual and economic exploitation thrives as a face of neoliberal economic globalization.

“The brutal aggression in our world today is one of the signs of deep and pervasive systems of domination derived from patriarchal ideology. This ideology thrives upon and is sustained by systems of hierarchy, domination and control.”

I am thankful for this kind of frank talk and clear linking of the violence against women, gender injustice generally and the wider violence in the world with our patriarchal way of thinking.

I am also thankful for the comments of Benebo Fubara-Manuel, a member of the WARC gender justice network, who added that if the church had not “divinized” the patriarchy deeply embedded within its systems, violence against women would not have survived in the church.

“Christianity’s starting point in ending the impunity for violence against women may be to humbly admit that its systems are not as divine as it has claimed for centuries and to honestly, under God, confront its own evils and confront them courageously,” added Fubara-Manuel, principal clerk of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria.

WARC takes this kind of confrontation seriously. That is why, for example, we speak out so clearly in favour of women taking their rightful place in the church, both as lay leaders and as ordained ministers.

As J. Dorcas Gordon, principal of Knox College in Toronto, another member of the WARC gender justice network, put it recently, “Surely it is time for those within the Reformed family who know what a blessing it is to have women exercising ministry in partnership with men to take a strong stand.

“Is the full partnership of women and men in the church a primary value for the Reformed family? Is it not, dare I say, a gospel value?”

WARC answers “yes.”

One concrete way of expressing this “yes” is found in WARC’s Theological Education Scholarship Fund for Women in the South which since 2001 has provided 267,000 Swiss Francs to support 42 women from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Pacific as they study for ordination.

It is but one way of saying “yes” to the full partnership of women in the church and in society; even while we cry “no” to violence against women and the patriarchy that justifies it.

Your support for the Mission and Service Fund helps make WARC’s voice loud and clear on these critical justice issues.

Blessings,

John P. Asling        
Executive Secretary for Communications
World Alliance of Reformed Churches

December 2006

Dear United Church of Canada Friends:

Greetings from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

I am fortunate to work here as the Executive Secretary for Communications, maintaining a relationship with the United Church of Canada as an overseas personnel associate.

United Church of Canada folks often want to know more about WARC and what I do. A story from my days working in the Hamilton Conference Office helps begin to explain one of the issues WARC is actively engaged in * unity in the church.

*

"The abominations."

At first I thought that I had misheard.

Then I heard it again.

"The abominations."

I was in meetings with First Nations folks concerning fishing rights in Ontario and a spokesperson for the fishers kept referring to the different Christian denominations * some of whom were represented at the gathering * as the "abominations."

It really bothered me at first but I understood that they had not always been treated well by these denominations. However I have always wondered if there wasn't another critical point being made: it is an abomination that there are so many Christian denominations.

*

Jesus prayed: "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that all may be one." (John 17: 20-21)

Despite this plea, "that all may be one," the history of the church has been one of many difficult divisions. In my short time at WARC I have come to a greater understanding of just how fractured the church of Jesus Christ remains today.

However I am pleased to be working in an organization dedicated to working with its member churches and in the wider church world on addressing the disunity in the church. Although an alliance of Reformed churches, WARC is at its core ecumenical.

Through its Office for Theology and Ecumenical Engagement, its Mission Project (including efforts supported by the United Church of Canada) and the secretariat as a whole, WARC has made the unity of the church one of its main raison d'être.

Our divisions in the Christian family are a scandal. As WARC's general secretary Setri Nyomi says, divisions within the Christian church are distracting it from its mission. These divisions are often more ideological than theological and are rooted in different perspectives on justice and inclusion.

"So long as the church is thus divided, the church will be giving mixed messages," Nyomi said recently. "How can we overcome the distracting divisions so that our mission can be effective?"

That is why WARC is working to bring the worldwide Christian communions closer together. That is why WARC is engaged in a number of bilateral dialogues on important theological questions. That is why WARC supports efforts of churches to reunite, become more fully in communion and work together in mission.

It's true that mainline media often captures very well the divisions in the church. And we ought not to sweep them under the carpet. However my time here at WARC has taught me that many healing efforts are underway. I would like to share just a few of these from 2006:

For the first time in memory governing bodies of WARC and the Lutheran World Federation met together in November to discuss, among other things, plans for an ecumenical assembly that would bring together leaders from many Christian world communions.

In September the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland signed an agreement to help promote good relations between the denominations and encourage the sharing of resources at the local and national levels.
Greek Orthodox and Reformed leaders meeting in Geneva in May agreed to the value of their ongoing dialogue dealing with the teachings of the Fathers of the church and the historic confessions of the Reformed churches.
In April the creation of the Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace Lorraine was formally proclaimed in France, bringing together the Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine and the Church of the Confession of Augsburg of Alsace and Lorraine, a Lutheran church.

Calling it a "major step forward in unity" leaders of WARC and the Reformed Ecumenical Council called in February for a new global body called the World Reformed Communion that would unite more than 80 million Reformed Protestants under one umbrella. Leaders of WARC called for a new era of partnership on justice issues in their first meeting in January with Pope Benedict XVI.

Representatives of the Reformed and Lutheran churches in the Middle East and North Africa signed a historic agreement of full recognition in January, putting them in communion with one another concerning Baptism, the Eucharist, ordination and pulpit exchanges.

Yes, there is much more to be done but there is much to witness in our efforts to become a truly united church. And we must thank God for these many inspired efforts underway in many different parts of the world. 

Let us all continue to work and pray for the unity of the church. Please know that when you support the Mission and Service Fund of the United Church of Canada you are supporting my work here to be part of a team dedicated to taking to heart the prayer of Jesus, "that all may be one."

Peace.

John P. Asling
Executive Secretary for Communications
World Alliance of Reformed Churches