2025 Trip to WCRC General Council
WCRC Delegates: The UCC sent five delegates to the WCRC General Council. I am pictured here with Rev. Danielle Hickman, the UCC Ecumenical Officer and Rev. Hyo-Jung Kim, the pastor at Morsemere Community UCC in Ridgefield, NJ. The UCC General Minister & President, Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson and Tivvy Pare, the Director of Outdoor Ministries for the New Hampshire Conference of the UCC were the other two delegates.
2025 Trip to WCRC General Council
The World Communion of Reformed Churches is an ecumenical organization comprised of denominations connected to the Reformed tradition, namely Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational, Waldensian, other First Reformation, and United and Uniting churches. The WCRC is “100 million Christians from more than 230 member churches in 109 countries across the globe. The WCRC believes Christian faith means responding to God’s call to foster justice and meet the spiritual needs of all people in the transformation of the world, through the love of Jesus Christ.”
Every seven years, the WCRC convenes its General Council to handle business and governance, much like the UCC convenes its General Synod. In 2025, the WCRC held its 27th General Council in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and I (Julia Gaughan) was part of the UCC’s five-person delegation. The General Council convened from October 14 to 24, 2025, and was attended by 400+ representatives from over 110 churches and 80 countries. If you would like a deep dive into all the business, please visit https://wcrc.eu/gc2025/. There are transcripts of the various keynotes and presentations along with details of the actions taken. Notably, our UCC General Minister and President, Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson, was elected as the next president of the WCRC, and Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago, delivered one of the keynote addresses.
I visited Karen refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border as part of an immersion trip during General Council, which was one of the most impactful experiences of my trip to Thailand. The school we visited served more than twice the students it had capacity for due to the influx of refugees fleeing the violence in Myanmar. The school offers education to students from elementary through high school, as well as college and graduate-level programs. Many of the young people attending this school hope to take their education back with them to Myanmar.
The theme for the WCRC General Council, “Persevere In Your Witness,” arose from Hebrews 12:1-3. This theme permeated our daily worship and reflections, and was especially poignant for me, as I also had the opportunity to worship at the Lisu Christian Church in Chiang Mai with my extended family, who have served as missionaries in Thailand since the 1970s. J. Russell and Gertrude Morse, originally from Oklahoma, moved to Tibet as missionaries in 1921. Their children and grandchildren have continued as missionaries across a changing landscape. The Morse family persevered through significant hardship in China and Burma during the 1950s and 1960s. Growing up, I had met a couple of cousins and certainly heard about their adventures. It was great to spend time together in person, and I hope to do so again in the future.
This theme also permeated our WCRC business, as we issued public statements and directed WCRC programming to address global issues of gender justice, climate justice, and economic justice. Much like the UCC, the WCRC experiences a tension along the progressive-conservative continuum regarding how best to address different topics, which is complicated by global North-South dynamics and the impacts of both historic and neo-colonialism. The WCRC uses consensus decision-making to arrive at public statements and courses of action, which is designed to give voice to a broad range of opinions. It was good to see consensus decision-making in action as a potential model for future use in other settings.
With this WCRC experience, I had an invaluable opportunity to meet with fellow Christians from all over the world, all trying to wrestle with how we live out the Gospel now, how we operate as the Church across our contexts in times such as these, and how we meet across our differences. Our need for more ecumenical and interfaith dialogue only grows as other divisions continue to break forth around the world. I hope you will join me in helping expand our ecumenical and interfaith work here in KO as we live out loud the love and grace so freely given to us.
Julia Gaughan
Designated Term Associate Conference Minister
WCRC Materials: In addition to business and worship materials, all delegates also received translation devices to check out each day. All materials were translated into seven languages, and live translators worked through all the business proceedings to ensure that everyone had access to the debates and conversations.
Wat Mahathat: I traveled throughout Thailand after the WCRC General Council concluded, including a visit to Wat Mahathat, one of the historic Buddhist temples in Ayutthaya, the historical capital of Siam that was destroyed during one of the many wars between Siam (Thailand) and Burma (Myanmar).
Thai - Myanmar Border: Everyone participated in an immersion experience as part of the General Council. I went with a group to the Thai Myanmar border to meet with Karen refugees at a school that serves students from Kindergarten through Seminary. The students that gave me a tour noted that Myanmar is just beyond this mountain range; sometimes they see helicopters and hear weapons in use given the proximity.
WCRC General Council: The World Communion of Reformed Churches gathers every seven years for its General Council, something akin to our UCC General Synods. Delegates from over 110 churches and 80 countries gathered for this WCRC General Council in Chiang Mai, Thailand.