After serving as secretary for the Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions for 32 years, Dr. Bert Beach, secretary for inter-church relations for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, resigned from the position at the annual CWC meeting in Oct
After serving as secretary for the Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions for 32 years, Dr. Bert Beach, secretary for inter-church relations for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, resigned from the position at the annual CWC meeting in October in Hendersonville, North Carolina, United States. Dr. John Graz, director of public affairs and religious liberty for the Adventist world church and a participant in the CWC conference for six years, was elected as CWC’s new secretary.
Beach says that some members of the CWC could have felt that some other communion should provide the position of secretary. However, an Adventist, he says, was elected for the next two years. “This was very interesting to me because an Adventist has been the secretary for so long,” he says.
Speaking about the opportunity the church has to be represented, Graz says that “being a part of the CWC has helped the Adventist Church in many ways. It has given to our church a strong visibility as not being a cult, a sect, a marginal church, or a non-Christian church, but as being strongly part of the Christian family. Being involved on this level is significant.”
“Many people, many big churches, many international Christian organizations know about Adventists through Bert Beach. He was the ambassador of the church. Being the secretary for 32 years opened the door to every Christian leader,” Graz explains.
“Some top leaders of the Christian world are together in this group,” Graz continues. “It represents informally about 2 billion Christians.” Graz notes that structural Christian unity or organic unity is not on the agenda of the CWC.
“We are engaged in developing good relations with others, but we’re not engaged in any way in giving up our fundamental beliefs and our mission,” Beach says. “Being a part of CWC has helped me to appreciate more not only many wonderful Christians, but my own church and what it stands for. I find that many other organizations are not always strongly directed. We’ve [the Adventist Church] had the blessing of God, so therefore we’re able to do many things that astonish others when they see what can be accomplished with a relatively small membership.”
Beach notes that although CWC holds annual meetings, it is not an organization as such. There are no paid staff, no dues, and no constitution. “It’s a meeting for the exchange of information and fellowship,” he says.