World Communion of Reformed Churches
To all WCRC member churches
To Executive Committee members, consultants and WCRC staff
To all Ecumenical Partners
To all in WCRC networks
25 May 2013
Dear friends
Warm Pentecost greetings in the name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. May the coming of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, provide you with peace during this season.
We have just returned from the WCRC Executive meeting which was held in Dodowa, Ghana this month. It was a very meaningful meeting between Ascension Day and Pentecost when the Governing Body of the WCRC entered into prayer and discernment of the will of God for the direction the WCRC is called to go. In this letter, I share with you one very important outcome of the Executive Committee meeting.
The Executive Committee issued a call to the Rev. Professor Jerry Pillay to be the next General Secretary of WCRC effective in the middle of the year 2014 when the current General Secretary finishes his term. The committee came to this decision with overwhelming agreement in the context of prayerful spirit of dependence on the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The Executive Committee enthusiastically issued this call to the Rev. Dr. Pillay on the following grounds:
1. Dr. Pillay is eminently qualified to fill the position.
2. Having served as president of the WCRC since 2010, naming him General Secretary will contribute to making this a seamless transition from Dr. Nyomi to Dr. Pillay.
3. Dr. Pillay has outstanding gifts to articulate the vision of, and enthusiasm for, the mission of WCRC (communion and justice).
4. Dr. Pillay was elected as president by the general council in 2010 demonstrating a signpost of confidence in his person and abilities.
5. Dr. Pillay already has a standing in the ecumenical community that serves WCRC’s mission well.
We share this good news with you at this time asking you to pray for Dr. Jerry Pillay and his family and his church, as he gives prayerful consideration to this call. It is our prayer that the Rev. Professor Jerry Pillay accepts this call and takes on the mantle of being General Secretary of the WCRC.
You may ask, “How about the Presidency?” The Executive Committee took a provisional decision that once Rev. Dr. Jerry Pillay accepts the call, the Rev. Dr. Yvette Noble Bloomfield, currently Vice President of WCRC and the Moderator of the United Church of Jamaica and Cayman Islands would become the next President of the WCRC. The WCRC Constitution provides for a Vice President becoming a President. The Rev. Dr. Yvette Noble Bloomfield is an experienced church leader with a heart for the ecumenical leadership role that the WCRC is committed to.
We ask you to pray for the WCRC in this process of change and moving in the direction God is calling us to go.
Sincerely yours,
Setri Nyomi (Rev. Dr.)
General Secretary