4th UEM General Assembly in Borkum

The 4th General Assembly of the United Evangelical Mission (UEM) takes place on the German island of Borkum from 14th until 20th June 2008.

The Motto of the conference is taken from the New Testament: »Brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God« (Romans 8:21).

The General Assembly (GA) is hosted by the Evangelical reformed Church, one of the seven UEM member churches in Germany.

About 120 UEM delegates and guests from Asia, Africa and Germany are expected for the conference on the island. Some 60 of them will take part in the Pre-Assemblies of Women and Youth which precede the main conference.

The General Assembly will deal with proposals concerning profound changes in the structure of the UEM and its fields of work. The Council in 2006 appointed an Organizational Development Task Force (ODTF) to develop strategies and schemes to help optimize the UEM which has to reduce expenses by 10 percent of its present 12 million euro budget until 2012.

The proposals made by the ODTF have been taken up and accepted by the council in 2007. Some of them, however, particularly those touching the constitution, the organs of the UEM and positions of executive secretaries have to pass the General Assembly.

The focus of the 4th General Assembly is climate change, the first consequences of which most of the member churches are confronted with in one way or another. The UEM department for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation has developed an exhibition informing about climate change and demonstrating projects of UEM member churches in all the three UEM regions. The exhibition is opened during the Assembly on June, 15th and will tour through German congregations and institutions afterwards.

Another exhibition is taking up the motto of the 4th General Assembly »freedom of the children of God«. The exhibition, which was initiated in cooperation with the Norddeutsche Mission (NM) for use within congregations deals with today’s understanding of mission: an understanding which includes human rights advocacy, partnership, empowerment of the marginalized, education, diaconia and evangelism. The exhibition which consists of five posters demonstrates these various fields of mission.