The newly appointed World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) president, Clifton Kirkpatrick has advised members of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) to take up the challenge of narrowing the gap seen between the rich and the poor.

Kirkpatrick has just recently returned from Accra, Ghana where he was elected president in front of four hundred delegates. He said that global economic disparities are “not just some problem somewhere but are destroying our churches.”

“That the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and that the global economic system is the fundamental cause, is the context in which the church is trying to minister all over the world,” Kirkpatrick continued. “This issue is at the core of the problem of trying to proclaim the gospel while the world is destroyed. What was clear in listening to our Presbyterian brothers and sisters around the world is that if present trends continue, there’s not much future for the world.”

The new president said that the frame of mind of the Council was “not anti-US, but anger and resentment directed against the ‘North’ for impoverishing the ‘South’. He added that there was no anti-American ‘groundswell,’ but a firm conviction that policies must change.”

In discussing the WARC’s views on the topic of homosexuality, Kirkpatrick stated that the Alliance was fully unified and not shaken.

“Of course we acknowledged that churches are in very different places. But we took no action on ordination or ministry,” Kirkpatrick said. “And we made two commitments: that we would be open to hear each other, and that this is not our most important priority and will not be a church-dividing issue.”

The WARC president gave his view that the WARC was “probably the healthiest organisation in the ecumenical movement.”

A majority of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches in the world are members of the WARC, and Kirkpatrick gave this as an example of a particularly healthy sign given that “splintering is characteristic of Reformed churches throughout history.”

Kirkpatrick also told of how the WARC struggles financially, and he urged Presbyterians to try to find ways to help the churches which are growing. He said that even though Presbyterians couldn’t do everything, “but we can find ways to live more simply, to exercise better stewardship, to resist consumerism and to work together to change the world. Me? I’ve been thinking about trading in my 10-year-old Honda. Now I’m going to drive that thing until it flat dies.”