Global Church of the Brethren Communion calls new leadership

The Global Church of the Brethren Communion met on June 6 via Zoom with delegates from member denominations attending. Among top agenda items the group elected two new officers of the board of the communion: Santos Terrero of Spain as president, and Sharon Brugger Norton of the United States as treasurer.

The meeting opened with prayer and a roll call. The agenda continued with discussion of a relatively recent clarification that members of the board of the communion are no longer delegates from their national church, and must be replaced as delegates. Delegates do not need to be national church presidents or officers to serve.

The countries represented at the meeting included Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Honduras, India, Rwanda, Spain, Uganda, the United States, and Venezuela.

Norton represented the Church of the Brethren in the US as Global Mission executive director.

In conversation about new church bodies that may join the communion, the group discussed the church in Burundi, shared positive reports from the work of Burundi lead pastor and founder Expert Bukene and his success in planting churches and doing relief and development work, and heard that the church in Burundi also has planted new congregations emerging in Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya. The group agreed by majority vote to invite Bukene to its next meeting with the intention to follow the process laid out for new national churches to join the communion.

Prayer concerns were shared, including a request from Rwanda for prayer for churches in isolation and tribulation.