The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) has expressed its "deep sense of sadness" in announcing the death of one of its long-time and much loved leaders, Milan Opočenský.

|PIC1|Scholar, ecumenist and social justice advocate, Opočenský who was WARC's general secretary from 1989 until 2000, died in Prague on January 31 after a brief illness. He was 75.

WARC president Clifton Kirkpatrick called Opočenský one of the saints of the ecumenical movement. He said, "It's difficult to know where the alliance and its commitment to economic and ecological justice would be today without Milan's great legacy.

"He was also a remarkable ecumenist who, though he worked for so many years within the Reformed family, never forgot the call to unity that is at the heart of the gospel. And he worked tirelessly for this goal. He will truly be missed."

Opočenský's successor, Setri Nyomi, said, "Milan will go down in the history of the alliance as a very committed leader and scholar who placed economic justice squarely on the agenda of WARC member churches.

"His commitment to the ecumenical movement from his youth as well as his conviction that the church ought to be at the forefront of addressing injustices were some of the gifts he brought into his leadership of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

"The Reformed family worldwide today offers a prayer of deep thanksgiving for Milan and a prayer of gentle comfort for the Opočenský family," Nyomi said.

Milan and his wife, Jana, also an ordained pastor, were a formidable team in the ecumenical world and devoted to their three children and their grandchildren. Nyomi said, "We pray that God will bless the family with many good memories at this difficult time."

The son of a Protestant pastor, Opočenský was born on 5 July 1931 in Hradec Králové, about 100 kilometres from Prague. His mother was the first woman to study Protestant theology in Czechoslovakia.

He was ordained in 1955 in the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and completed his ThD in 1965. In 1973 he became a professor of Social Ethics at the Comenius Faculty of Protestant Theology in Prague.

He was the author of Christians and Revolution and Widerstand und Revolution and the editor of numerous others.

Opočenský was involved in a variety of ecumenical organisations during his long career, including the World Council of Churches in the 1960s and the World Student Christian Federation where from 1967 to 1973 he served as European Secretary.

At the time of his retirement from WARC he explained how he could be a committed ecumenist and a leader of a world communion: "For me being Reformed does not mean being less ecumenical."