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 At the inaugural meeting of the World Reformed Fellowship, in Orlando in 2000, it was proposed that WRF should consider drawing a number of Reformed scholars from all over the world to write a new confessional statement for the 21st Century. That was agreed but due to a lack of resources and many other pressing matters, it was not until the General Assembly of the WRF in March of 2006 in Johannesburg, South Africa, that the proposal became a reality. In South Africa, it was agreed that this Statement of Faith would be the first responsibility of the WRF Theological Commission and the first members of the Commission were appointed.
Those who agreed to serve are: Professor A.T.B. McGowan, Chairman, Scotland; Professor David McKay, Northern Ireland; Professor Pierre Berthoud, France; Dr. Leonardo de Chirico, Italy; Professor Alan Harman, Australia; Professor Flip Buys, South Africa; Dr. Victor Cole, Kenya; Professor Gerald Bray, England; Dr. Peter Jones, North America; Dr. Samuel Logan, North America; Dr. Augustus Nicodemus Lopes, Brazil; Dr. Wilson Chow, Hong Kong; Dr. In Wan Kim, South Korea; Dr. Julius Kim, North America; and Dr. Stephen Tong, Indonesia.
The WRF Theological Commission held its first official meeting in March of 2007 in Seo Paulo, Brazil. At that first plenary meeting the Commission established some core principles, agreed basic working practices and gave some preliminary consideration to the structure of the proposed Statement. It was also agreed that the day to day writing of the Statement would be committed to small working groups, who would prepare section drafts. The target completion date for the Statement is the WRF General Assembly in 2010, which is to be held in Scotland. The WRF recognises that there are many different expressions of Reformed Theology, including the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dordrecht and the Westminster Confession of Faith, to give only a few examples. These confessional statements are very different but yet we recognise each of them as "Reformed." The question naturally arises, >What are the common elements or doctrines which make a Statement "Reformed?" It is also true, of course, that all of the aforementioned Reformed confessional statements were written within a hundred years or so of each other, in post-Reformation Western Europe. That raises a second question, "What would a Reformed Statement of faith would look like when written also by Christians from Africa, Asia, South America and elsewhere?" Above all, our Reformed Confessional statements were all written prior to the Enlightenment which fundamentally affected Christian theology. The greatest enemy of Reformed theology in the past 200 years has been Liberal Theology, created out of the Enlightenment, yet it is not mentioned in any of our Reformed confessions because they were written before it existed. This is also true of the current challenges presented by relativism, pluralism, postmodernism and paganism. This leads to our third question, "How do we respond to the challenge of the Enlightenment?" In order to answer these questions and meet these challenges, the Theological Commission will seek to identify the "core" of Reformed theology, put this into the language and concepts of the 21st century and then apply this to the theological and practical issues facing the church today. This will emphatically not involve simply "updating" any of the existing Reformed confessions, rather we are engaged in a completely new work. In other words, this project should not be taken to imply any criticism of the existing Reformed confessions, all of which have served the church well in their day. It is clear that The Statement cannot and should not say everything. Choices will have to be made as to what is included or excluded. It is also important that the Commission be willing to use new language and even new concepts in order to communicate the Reformed Faith today. We must also avoid the temptation to major on issues which are the latest "hot topic" but which may be history tomorrow, or issues which are largely restricted to one country. We do not want the statement to be parochial, nor to be outdated in ten years!At the meeting in Brazil, the Theological Commission, after considerable discussion, agreed to break into four working groups, to consider four topics. It should be stressed that these are not necessarily the most important topics for a Confessional statement, nor are they necessarily to be the first four in the final order of the Statement. They are, however, important and seemed to be the topics which was of most interest to the members of the Theological Commission in preliminary discussions. Here is the breakdown of responsibilities: Group One: The Doctrine of God - Gerald Bray (Chairman), Allan Harman and Victor Cole; Group Two: The Doctrine of Creation - Peter Jones (Chairman), Augustus Lopez and Andrew McGowan; Group Three: Christian World View - Pierre Berthoud (Chairman), In Whan Kim and David McKay; Group Four: Applied Theology - Flip Buys (Chairman), Samuel Logan and Wilson Chow. The second meeting of the Theological Commission took place in the Netherlands in of November 2007, the Chair of each of the four working groups reported on the progress made thus far, and additional assignments were made. Further discussions were held in Seoul, South Korea, in March of 2008, and the next meetings will take place in Orlando, Florida in October of 2008, and in Jakarta, Indonesia, in March of 2009.
 
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