02.09.2022

New leadership staff for the German Region

From the Rhine in Germany, via Cape Town and Sumatra to Wuppertal: Marie-Anne Halim is the new Deputy Executive Secretary German Region. © UEM

Committed, articulate and highly motivated: this is how Reverend Marie-Anne Halim started her new position at the UEM.

As Deputy Executive Secretary German Department, she takes over the operational management of the Germany Department and thus many tasks from the previous Executive Secretary German Department, Angelika Veddeler. These includes working with the German members, supporting the South-North staff, networking and the international education team, as well as the regional ministry of the UEM. 

The pastor grew up in the Lower Rhine area in Germany as the daughter of a German and an Indonesian. She describes herself as a village girl with a multicultural background. Halim first studied law in Göttingen and Bonn before deciding to study theology. She was ordained in the EKiR* in 2019 and worked in congregations in Germany and Indonesia. She gained her first experience with the UEM in 2019 when she visited the URCSA* and the RCSA* during her vicariate course in South Africa. She was particularly impressed by the fact that Christianity here is very tangibly a worldwide community that connects even such distant places as Bonn in Germany and Cape Town in South Africa.

Angelika Veddeler is leaving the UEM Board at her own request on Oct. 1, 2022 and will take over as team leader of the Regional Service. 

The position of Executive Secretary German Department head has been redesigned. In the future, the department will be linked to the UEM Management Team (MT) via Rev. Dr. Dyah Krismawati (Executive Secretary Asia Department, MT Member) and Rev. Dr. John Wesley Kabango (Executive Secretary Africa Department, MT Member).

*EKiR: Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland (Protestant Church in the Rhine Area, Germany)

*URCSA: Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa

*RCSA: Rhenish Church in South Africa