European Evangelicals go for duo-leadership

Both Evangelical Focus and Idea are reporting this.

The present general secretary Thomas Bucher will remain in office until the conference Hope Event in October. He will have served ten years at the leadership of EEA then.

According to EEA, the organisation has been very active, both in prayer and scouting for candidates, to find the right people for Bucher’s succession. Both Connie Main Duarte and Jan Wessels have served at the EEA board for several years already.

Over to Portugal

Connie Main Duarte (51) was born in Canada. She came over to Portugal in 1998, among others, to teach at the Baptist Seminary. In 2013, she was ordained as a co-pastor of Meeting Point Church in Estoril.

Jan Wessels (61) is the missions pastor of the Christian Reformed Bethelkerk in Veenendaal in the Netherlands. He has served as a missionary in Botswana before. Also, he has worked as the general secretary of the Dutch Evangelical Alliance.

Bucher says he is “really pleased” with his successors.

The European Evangelical Alliance was founded in 1951. It represents 23 million Christians from 36 countries in Europe. Most countries have national organisations. The European offices are in Brussels and Bonn.