WORLD : Boesak Quits World Church Post : Boesak Resigns as President of World Calvinist Church Group

GENEVA — South African anti-apartheid churchman Allan Boesak, who quit the clergy last month over an extramarital love affair, has resigned as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the group announced today.

A statement by the executive committee of the Geneva-based alliance, grouping 175 Calvinist churches around the world with a total 70 million members, said it had accepted Boesak’s resignation with regret at a closed session of its annual meeting.

Dr. Jane Dempsey Douglass, a professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, was elected to succeed Boesak as president, alliance General Secretary Milan Opocensky said.

Boesak, 44, who had headed the alliance since 1982, submitted his resignation by letter and did not attend the executive committee meeting, Opocensky said.