One of the purposes of the World Reformed Fellowship is to advance partnerships across Reformed groups, particularly with churches. We operate as a forum to assist the Reformed church to cooperate on missions and evangelism, theological and ministerial education, and doctrinal considerations as our world changes and in order to foster deeper unity in the bride of Christ.

The WRF is global in its membership, but also regional in its emphasis. We have regional boards designed to facilitate partnerships across denominational and organizational boundaries locally as well – the kingdom of God is global in scope, yet the local church remains embodied in particular places and times. We have an eye to the global work and calling of God while remaining committed to advanced Reformed partnerships on a regional level.

To that end the WRF hosts consultations from time-to-time. Consultations are different from conferences or the WRF’s General Assembly in that instead of being broad and aimed at public attendance, they are smaller and have a specialized focus. For instance, the WRF hosted a consultation on theological education in 2014 in Sao Paulo. In a consultation like this, leaders with experience in the field and who occupy positions to influence greater collaboration across organizations are brought together to discuss the state of the field, to consider possible shared goals, and to deliberate on practical implementations as partners.

The WRF’s North American regional board is hosting a theological consultation in April, 2025. A theological consultation is aimed at stimulating conversation around God’s word and its doctrinal implications for the sake of practical partnership. The nature of the theological consultation is church unity and Reformed denominationalism amid the rapid secularization and dechurching in North America. The WRF’s North American church membership, including the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Christian Reformed Church, the Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians (ECO), the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and the Presbyterian Church in America, along with participants from other Reformed and confessional bodies, will gather together to better consider how to theologically address the old topic of Reformed catholic unity for our new missional context.

This is one of the contributions the WRF makes to the life of Christ’s church — we exist to provide a space for members of his church, who may otherwise be isolated from each other, to collaborate for the sake of God’s mission.

Rev. Cameron Shaffer is the pastor of Langhorne Presbyterian Church (EPC, USA) and a member of the Board of Directors of the WRF.