The Internet in Mission and Ecumenism ... - Reformiert online

5. Input 3: “Intercultural Communication and Information
Exemplified by the Internet Information System ‘Reformed
Online’" by Christoph Fasse
Christoph Fasse, The Johannes a Lasco Library Great Church Emden Foundation
Ladies and Gentlemen!
In my capacity of representing the field of "New Media" in the Johannes a Lasco Library Great Church
Emden Foundation, I would like to present to you the information system "reformed online" which has
been operating already since the beginning of 2000.
The Johannes a Lasco Library, being a special library for Reformed Protestantism, naturally has
strong ties with the Reformed Protestant tradition and with the churches which consider themselves
linked to this tradition. However, worldwide Reformed Christianity is in the highest degree fragmented
– into about 800 churches – and only about a quarter of these have joined the Word Alliance of
Reformed Churches in Geneva. A lot of these churches exist – whether on purpose or unintentionally
– in isolation, and especially the churches in poorer countries cannot take part in the processes of
world church policy, or at least only insufficiently.
Already at the beginning of the nineties in Geneva this problem was recognized and, as a result, the
international meeting place for Reformed Protestants, the "John Knox Center", financed the
compilation of the address and information project "The Reformed Family Worldwide" under the
direction of Lukas Vischer and Jean Jacques Bauswein. For the first time in the history of Reformed
churches the experiment of completely portraying the presence of Reformed churches was
undertaken.
The printed work, which finally appeared in 1999, quickly developed into a standard work, although –
and this was perfectly clear to everyone – already during its printing it was no longer up to date
because the data had been surveyed already in 1995.
How should this proceed? Who should look after the information in the future, and besides that, was a
book really the right medium for such changeable information as addresses and statistical data? How
should the information reach the remote regions of the world?
To a small working team in the Johannes a Lasco Library in Emden, which convened at the beginning
of 2000, it quickly became evident that especially libraries have the task of gathering, securing and
administrating information. From this, there developed the resolution to build up a collection of
information that would have to surpass a "simple" address book and would comply with the demands
on a special library. Especially the "disorganization" among the Reformed churches involved a high
amount of diversity which now had to be documented. Now, if information from all over the world is
collected and administrated, this only makes sense, if it is also available all over the world. Using
conventional library tools this would practically only be possible in the so-called "First World".
Furthermore it was our goal to develop a pool of information, not in a country in which the churches, in
comparison to the rest of the world, already have plenty of funds at their disposal anyway and in
which there are well-equipped educational institutions and an infrastructure of such a quality that
every kind of information can easily be obtained, because such a pool would increase the margin
between us and the poorer and poorest countries, perhaps even make the rift less bridgeable for
decades to come. We wanted to create something which would be a signal pointing towards unity
within the Reformed Family, symbolizing and establishing this unity.
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