On 20 September, a meeting between the Board of Directors of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE) and the Permanent Commission of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE) took place in Madrid.

The gathering is a continuation of the regular meetings between the presidents and general secretaries of the two organisations, which were held for over a decade.

This is the first time that all the members of the governing bodies of both organisations attended. The meeting concluded with a meal and a time of fraternal fellowship.

Moving forward

In their conversations, both groups reviewed and evaluated the previously reached agreements (in 2012 and 2020), which express the mutual recognition between “two sister entities, but of different nature, scope of work and representativeness”; the collaboration in areas of common interest; the recognition and mutual support in international institutional relations; and the willingness to continue their collaboration and progress along this path of fraternal dialogue.

The aim was to move forward on the basis of the agreements reached, analysing new proposals for collaboration at national and international level.

Many ideas and proposals were put on the table, which will be analysed to be reflected in new agreements in the future.

In order to facilitate an even more fluid relationship between FEREDE and the Spanish Evangelical Allianve, they agreed that the executive secretary of Ferede (Carolina Bueno) and the secretary general of the AEE (Xesús Manuel Suárez) would be in permanent contact from now on.

Furthermore, the annual meeting of presidents and general secretaries will be held as usual, and when deemed appropriate (with no fixed frequency) the full governing bodies of both organisations will meet again.

Leading figures in the history of Spanish Protestantism

The two entities, leading figures in the history of Spanish Protestantism underlined the share the vocation of contributing to the unity, visibility and social presence of the evangelical community in Spain.

"That is why it is key that they continue to make progress in constructive dialogue and the coordination of joint initiatives and projects that result in beneficial synergies of impact within and outside the ecclesiastical sphere", they said.