The Reverend Najla Kassab, a minister of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, has been elected President of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (abbreviated as WCRC). The WCRC brings together more than 225 churches in around 110 countries of the world.
“Najla’s presence and her many gifts, vision, understanding, spiritual strength and grace make her the right candidate for president to lead us going forward,” said Alison McDonald, moderator of the Nominations Committee, which had submitted the list of nominated candidates to the executive committee of the WCRC General Council.
The election took place on 7 July, the last day of the Council. The Council itself was held in the German city of Leipzig from 29 June to 7 July this year. Of the 22 members of the new executive committee, 10 are men and 12 are women; 15 are ordained and 7 are lay (non-ordained). Five people on the executive committee are young people who have not reached the age of 30, including one of the vice-presidents.
Kassab (aged 52) has been a member of the WCRC executive committee since 2010. As director of the Christian Education Department of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, she was the first woman to receive a preaching licence in her church, and the second woman to be ordained, in March 2017. Kassab holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian education from the Near East School of Theology and, in 1990, a master’s degree in theology from Princeton Theological Seminary (USA).
“Since 1993 I have been fighting for the right of women to be ordained in the Middle East, and I thank God that two months ago two women were ordained as pastors in the Middle East,” Kassab said at a press conference after her election. “I stand, as I have said, for the same rights for women, so that they may use their talents to the full in the life of the church, and so that the church may grow through the talents of women.”
Among her priorities are strengthening the WCRC in the regions and supporting young people. “This is a time to listen to them, to fight together with them, to see their contribution to the life of the church,” Kassab announced.
The new president added that on some issues the member churches of the WCRC hold differing views. “It is a priority to sit down at one table and to listen to one another in a spirit of understanding and dialogue, led by the Holy Spirit.”
Kassab also emphasised the importance of ecumenism in the life of the WCRC. “As representatives of the Reformation movement, we cannot survive without ecumenism,” she said. “What happened in Wittenberg* is a strong ecumenical statement of the churches.”
* On 5 July 2017 in Wittenberg, the WCRC formally associated itself with two declarations: the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which was signed in 1999 by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church. The World Methodist Council associated itself with the declaration in 2006. The other declaration, signed by the WCRC together with the Lutheran World Federation, is the so-called Wittenberg Witness, a pledge to strengthen cooperation and to act together. https://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/news/wcc-hails-wittenberg-declaration-aiming-to-overcome-reformation-divisions
Source: http://wcrc.ch/news/lebanese-pastor-elected-as-president