The General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) has offered his full support to a decision for the two biggest Protestant denominations in France’s eastern Alsace-Lorraine region to form a union of churches.
Setri Nyomi, at a 7th May service in Strasbourg to celebrate the union of Lutheran and Reformed churches said, “In the face of gross injustices in the world, the need for people to hear the gospel clearly, and the calling on the church to mediate fullness of life, churches have a responsibility to rise above divisions and give a clear witness.”
He added, “We live in fragmented societies in our world today, and churches need to be at the forefront of prophetic ministry and setting good examples that bring refreshing new realities to replace the fragmentation.”
Developments have seen the Lutheran Church of Augsburg Confession and the Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine agree to the union, but the two will also continue.
Various tasks will be delegated to the new Union of protestant Churches, which has a common decision-making structure and a single body of pastors.
The two denominations stated, “Without being a fusion nor a new church, this new organisation will make it possible for the two churches to give a new impulse to their witness to the Gospel in society.”
A special legal status has been given to churches in Alsace and Lorraine, as the region was part of Germany in 1905 when the law instituting the separation of Church and State in France was introduced. After the First World War when the region was returned to France, the churches remained established under French law, with their pastors being paid by the state, explain the WARC.
As a result, a special government decree was needed to create the new union now formed.
The creation of the Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine is the eighth attempt at uniting the two denominations, which between them have about 240,000 members, which equates to approximately 8 percent of the region's population, tell WARC.
Daniel Blake
Christian Today Correspondent