A Few of the Developments in the Ministry of the World Reformed Fellowship in 2009 

December 10, 2009 - 45 denominations, 55 congregations, 81 organizations, 434 individuals

December 10, 2008 - 39 denominations, 44 congregations, 62 organizations, 312 individuals

December 10, 2005 - 10 denominations, 5 congregations, 11 organizations, 37 individuals

ASSISTING THE GLOBAL CHURCH

**   In late 2008, the WRF was contacted by the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, and asked if we could recommend someone who could assist the global evangelical Anglican movement with legal matters. As a result, a WRF member who is a senior partner of a U.S. law firm traveled to Sydney in March to meet with Anglican representatives involved in the new organization, and thereafter assisted in development of an organizational plan, preparation of governing documents, and formal incorporation of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, now a functioning global organization. This WRF member continues to provide legal advice and service on related matters for the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, including securing protection for its identity in numerous countries around the world.

**   The new General Secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, himself a personal member of the WRF, was asked to go to Scotland in August of 2009 to consult with evangelical leaders in the Church of Scotland. As a result of that consultation, the Fellowship of Confessing Churches has been formed in Scotland and the newly-elected Moderator of that Fellowship will co-chair a workshop on "mainline evangelicalism" at the General Assembly in Edinburgh in April along with the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda and the Senior Pastor of a large evangelical PCUSA congregation in the United States.

**   On December 1, 2009, the WRF received an e-mail from the newly-elected President of the Council of Korean Presbyterian Churches (which is made up of 27 Presbyterian denominations in South Korea) in which that President, who is a personal member of the WRF, indicated his intention that the Council use the WRF as a primary global outreach arm and said that he would attend the WRF General Assembly in Edinburgh to communicate this to the Assembly and to explore with the WRF what this might mean.

**   November 30, 2009, the Chair of the WRF Theological Commission announced to the WRF Board that the new Statement of Faith, on which WRF members from six continents around the world have been working for five years, will be completed by March 1, 2010, and will, at the General Assembly in Edinburgh, be presented and commended to all WRF members for their review, study, and use.

STRENGTHENING GLOBAL THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

**   June of 2009, the WRF was contacted by the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University and was asked to assist in the creation of online course material focused on the theology of Edwards and utilizing the Edwards materials which have been digitized by Yale and are now available to the public. The WRF agreed and established an Advisory Committee to assist in the work. That course has been completed and will "go live" before Christmas of 2009. WRF member theological education institutions will meet with Yale representatives at the WRF General Assembly in Edinburgh in April of 2010 to plan ways in which those institutions might offer formal academic credit for this and other such courses and possibly develop a global academic accreditation network for evangelical Reformed theological education institutions.

**   In late November of 2009, a WRF Board member who serves as President of a theological college in South Africa was contacted by the missions director at a church in the USA pastored by another WRF Board member. The American missions director explained that their church was heavily involved in missions work in Southern Sudan and that they wanted to help start a theological college there. The missions director asked the South African Board member for assistance and the latter individual, whose school has a very strong and extensive program of distance education, has agreed to do so. The two men will meet to finalize details at the WRF General Assembly in Edinburgh. In addition, the church of the American missions director will cover the costs for the Moderator of the Sudanese Reformed Churches (which is a denominational member of the WRF) to attend the General Assembly in Edinburgh and, therefore, to participate in these face-to-face discussions.