Becoming Reformed
The Evangelical Reformed Church of Bucharest is a confessional Reformed church plant in the capital city of Romania. It is being planted by Rev. Mihai Corcea, a URCNA missionary and graduate of Westminster Seminary California. Rev. Corcea was born in Transylvania (a Romanian province) and grew up Eastern Orthodox. After a few years spent with his family in Arminian Evangelicalism, in his teenage years, Mihai discovered the Reformation through reading books.
After graduating college and getting married, Mihai and his wife Ldia moved to Bucharest. There Mihai started a Bible study group with other people interested in the Protestant Reformation. With no Romanian Reformed denomination existing in the country and no confessional Reformed church in Bucharest, the group came in contact with Rev. Andrea Ferrari, a URCNA missionary in Italy. Rev. Ferrari advised Mihai to study at Westminster Seminary California. Mihai completed his seminary studies in 2016.
Mihai Corcea with Dr. W. Robert Godfrey
July 2016 ordination at Christ URC Santee
Back to Bucharest
In July 2016, Mihai was examined by Classis Southwest of the URCNA, then called and ordained by Christ URC Santee to serve as a missionary in Romania. Mihai returned to Bucharest where he started the church planting ministry with a small group. They rented a meeting place downtown Bucharest and started advertising study meetings on Friday night. After a slow start, new people started attending the meetings of the church plant.
About 97% of people in Bucharest are Eastern Orthodox, 1% Evangelical, 1% Atheist and 1% other religons. However, most people are only nominal Christians with little understanding or interest in the Christian faith. Rev. Corcea started a book pulblishing minsitry which has published several Reformed books into Romanian: The Heidelberg Catechism, Core Christianity, Sacred Bond, Reformation Sketches, The Canons of Dort.
Continuing the Work
Since September 2019, the church plant started renting a mainline Lutheran church building which has provided a better outreach location. There is one local elder who labors together with Rev. Corcea in the church planting work. The elders of Christ URC Santee organize an annual oversight visit.
There is increased interest in Reformed theology coming from Bucharest and other cities. Rev. Corcea continues his involvement in the book publishing work with three new books planned for publishing in 2020. Because of recent coronavirus restrictions, much of the outreach efforts have moved online, especially through the use of social media.
Rev. Corcea (far right), elder Claudiu (far left) with the elders of Christ URC Santee (middle left and right) and a new member (center).