About
- Ordination and installation of Rev. Andrea Ferrari on January 24, 2010. Rev. Ferrari has been called by the Consistory of Christ URC to serve as a missionary to Italy. His mission is to pastor the congregation in Milan and work to establish a denomination of Reformed churches in Italy.
What is Reformation Italy?
Reformation Italy is a website designed to inform English-speaking Christians and Reformed churches about the mission work of establishing Le Chiese Riformate in Italia (The Reformed Churches in Italy). This mission work is overseen by Christ United Reformed Church (URCNA) in Santee, CA, with the advice of the churches in Classis Southwest, and served by Rev. Andrea Ferrari, a URCNA missionary and the pastor of Chiesa Evangelica Riformata ‘Filadelfia’ (CERF). CERF is the only confessional Reformed church in Milan, and the only known church in Italy that confesses the Three Forms of Unity.
Why is this mission work necessary?
Presently, no confessional Reformed denominations exist in Italy. Although the Protestant Reformation gained some footing in the early sixteenth century, producing reformers such as Peter Martyr Vermigli, Paolo Vergerio, and Bernadino Ochino, it was quickly crushed by Rome’s violent Inquisition. Today, the country is almost entirely Roman Catholic. Of its 60,250,535 citizens, 58,441,290 were baptized into the Roman Church (though a large percentage of this number consists of nominal members). After that, the ecclesiastical landscape consists mainly of charismatic and Brethren churches. Not even the remaining Waldensian Church in Italy can be considered a Reformed presence. In 1975, it merged with the Italian Methodist Church and the Baptist Union, and is now a member of the World Council of Churches. Aside from CERF, there is not a single congregation in Italy that confesses the Three Forms of Unity. Rome did its work well in the sixteenth and seventeenth centries. As confessional Reformed Christians, we are compelled to ask, “Where is the Gospel being preached each week in Italy?” While there are a few Baptist congregations in the country that preach the Gospel, there is no distinctively Reformed witness.
To put this in perspective, compare Italy to California. California has a population of less than 37,000,000 in a geographical area of nearly 164,000 square miles. Italy, on the other hand, has a population of more than 60,000,000 within an area of about 116,000 square miles. It is smaller than California in its geographical size, yet almost twice as large in population. What is staggering, however, is that California possesses over 180 confessional Reformed or Presbyterian churches which are members of NAPARC, while Italy has only one established church that holds to the same standards.
Or compare San Diego to Milan. San Diego County has a population of just over 3,000,000 in a geographical area of 4,261 square miles. The Milan Metropolitan Area has a population of over 7,400,000 in a geographical area of about 4,633 square miles. San Diego County has 29 NAPARC churches, while Milan has one that meets the same criteria.
In light of these statistics, Christ United Reformed Church has called and commissioned Andrea Ferrari to the long-term mission work of planting confessional Reformed churches in Italy. By God’s grace, the light of the Reformation has not yet been fully extinguished in this fair land.
Authors
Andrea Ferrari
Rev. Ferrari is a missionary and pastor ordained in the United Reformed Churches in North America. He is an Italian national and serves as pastor of Chiesa Evangelica Riformata ‘Filadelfia’ (CERF) in Milan (Novate), Italy.
Rev. Ferrari has served two congregations previous to his call as a URCNA missionary. First, as the pastor of an Assemblies of God congregation in Sicily, and later as the pastor of an independent Reformed Baptist church in Milan. The latter was reconstituted on May 2, 2010, as Chiesa Evangelica Riformata ‘Filadelfia’ (CERF) – a fully Reformed church which confesses the Three Forms of Unity and uses the URCNA Church Order. Rev. Ferrari’s entrance into the URCNA was by a colloquium doctum administered by Classis Southwest. His ministry is overseen by the Consistory of Christ United Reformed Church in Santee, CA with the advice of Classis Southwest.
Rev. Ferrari possesses theological degrees from three institutions: a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Assemblies of God Bible Institute in Italy (1992), a Master of Philosophy from the University of Wales (2004), and another Masters degree (Dottore Magistrale) from the University of Milan (2007). He is the author of John Diodati’s Doctrine of Holy Scripture (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), as well as numerous articles published in theological journals and magazines.
Andrea and his wife Cristina were married in 1992 and have two sons, Simone (Simon) and Danielle (Daniel). They live in Bollate, Milan.
Rev. Brown serves as pastor of Christ United Reformed Church in Santee, CA. He was ordained as a minister of Word and sacraments in the United Reformed Churches of North America on September 19, 2004 at the Escondido United Reformed Church with the specific calling of planting in a church in the east San Diego area. Christ URC has been a fully constituted church since 2007.
Rev. Brown is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California, holding the Master of Divinity (2004) and Master of Arts in Historical Theology degrees. He is the author of Christ and the Condition: The Covenant Theology of Samuel Petto (Reformation Heritage, forthcoming), co-author of Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored (Reformed Fellowship, forthcoming) and the editor and contributing author of Called to Serve: Essays for Elders and Deacons (Reformed Fellowship, 2007). He has also published articles in magazines such as Table Talk, Modern Reformation, Banner of Truth, and The Outlook, and academic papers on historical theology in The Confessional Presbyterian Journal, Mid-America Theological Journal, Reformed Baptist Theological Review, Puritan Reformed Journal, and the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology.
Mike and his wife Janie were married in 1990 and have four children. They live in San Diego, CA.
Simonetta Carr was born and raised in Italy. A former elementary school teacher and mother of eight children, Carr has written for newspapers and magazines around the world, including Modern Reformation and The Outlook, and has translated the works of several Christian authors into Italian. Most recently, she has published three church history books for children, part of a series by Reformation Heritage Books known as “Christian Biographies for Young Readers:” John Calvin (2008), Augustine of Hippo (2009), and John Owen (2010). Presently, she lives in San Diego with her husband Tom and family. She is a member and Sunday School teacher at Christ United Reformed Church.
Chris is a member and pastoral intern of Christ Reformed Church (URCNA) in Anaheim CA. He is a fourth year student at Westminster Seminary California, and will (Lord willing) graduate with an Masters of Divinity in May, 2011. He embraced the Reformed faith while finishing his undergraduate degree at Biola University. He is planning on seeking ordination in the United Reformed Churches of North America after completion of his studies at WSC in May 2011. Chris spent two months with Rev. Ferrari in summer 2010, assisting him in preaching and other duties.
Dr. Darryl Hart is a noted historian who has taught church history at Westminster Seminary California and Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He earned his B.A. at Temple University, his M.A.R. at Westminster Theological Seminary, his M.T.S. at Harvard University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. at John Hopkins University. He is the author of numerous intellectual books on American church history and social thought, including Recovering Mother Kirk: The Case for Liturgy in the Reformed Tradition (2003), The Lost Soul of American Protestantism (2004), Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age of Billy Graham (2005), and A Secular Faith: Why Christianity Favors the Separation of Church and State (2006). Dr. Hart is an elder in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.