Triennial Meeting of the World Evangelical Congregational Fellowship

During recent weeks, the Fellowship of Congregational Churches (FCC) has hosted several international visitors and participated in the Triennial Meeting of the World Evangelical Congregational Fellowship (WECF) in Auckland, New Zealand.

Rev. Dr. David Wells(the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), Rev. Mike Plant(General Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, UK), Rev. Dr. Hristo Kulichev(from the Union of Evangelical Congregational Churches in Bulgaria and Pastor of the Congregational Church in Sofia) were among the international visitors.

Following the WECF Meeting, a group from the USA toured New Zealand and parts of Australia, led by Rev. A. Barry Jones, WECF's newly-inducted President. On his final day in Sydney, Rev. Jones addressed a gathering of FCC pastors and wives.

All of these visitors are linked to each other and the FCC through the WECF whose 7th Triennial Meetings were conducted at "Willow Park" Conference Centre, Auckland. Of the 15 fellowships that currently
constitute the WECF, seven were represented, with four others unable to attend.

Each fellowship is entitled to send three voting delegates to the Triennial Meeting and with visitors and other representatives, about 50 people met to
praise God and study His Word together.

The Theme was "For Such A Time As This" and the keynote speaker, Dr. David Wells (also an ordained
Congregational minister) presented three challenging messages on "The Uniqueness of Christ."

Rev. Matthew Murray (Australia) and Rev. Dr. Stephen Gammon (Conservative Congregational Christian Conference Minister,USA) brought the other Bible Teaching messages.

Audio-visual and verbal reports were presented from each country.

The next Triennial Meeting will be held in England in 2007.