WCRC To Move To Germany

The Executive Committee of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) has voted to relocate its offices from Geneva, Switzerland to Hanover, Germany. The results of the vote taken via email were recently announced by WCRC President Jerry Pillay.

“We welcome the move to Hanover which allows WCRC to continue to live out its mission as a communion of churches. We will remain focused on our mandate of seeking church unity and justice in society and the economy and respect for the environment,” Pillay said in a statement.

The move comes in response to concerns about the cost of running an organization in Switzerland. These include staff salaries and the high value of the Swiss franc. Most WCRC membership fees and donations are made in Euros or American dollars that have dropped in value in the past several years against the strong Swiss franc.

The Christian Reformed Church is one of the founding members of WCRC, which came into being as the result of a merger between the Reformed Ecumenical Council and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches that occurred in June 2010 on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.

WCRC represents 230 churches and 80 million Reformed Christians worldwide.

The move to Hanover is scheduled for the end of December 2013. The new offices will be located at the Calvin Center owned by the Evangelical Reformed Church of Germany where the Reformed Alliance has its offices. WCRC has a seven-member staff.

The Reformed church movement has had its offices in Geneva since 1948 when the World Presbyterian Alliance (a WCRC predecessor organization) moved from Edinburgh, Scotland.