The role of evangelical churches in a polarized society and the joint celebration of the Spanish entity’s 150th anniversary were discussed during a visit to Barcelona by the EEA’s co-general secretary, Connie Duarte.
.jpg "Connie Duarte, co-general secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance, on 21 March in Barcelona, alongside X. Manuel Suárez, general secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance. / Photo: AEE.")
Connie Duarte, co-general secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance, on 21 March in Barcelona, alongside X. Manuel Suárez, general secretary of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance. / Photo: AEE.
Last Friday, 20 March, Connie Duarte, co-general secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance, travelled to Barcelona to meet with the board of directors of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE).
The gathering was held at the premises of Iglesia Betania church.
Representing the Spanish Evangelical Alliance were Marcos Zapata (president), Xesús Manuel Suárez (general secretary), Daniel Oval (vice-president), Amable Morales (treasurer) and board members Julio Pérez, Juan Carlos Parra, Paqui Capa and Pedro Tarquis.
During a meeting lasting just over two hours, it was agreed that the next General Assembly of the European Evangelical Alliance would be held in Madrid to coincide with the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance’s founding, on 21 and 22 May 2027, thereby reinforcing this historic commemoration.
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Furthermore, the work of the AEE was discussed, which Duarte described as being of enormous vitality and impact for a small national Alliance, comparatively speaking, when compared to other major European Alliances. It was also agreed to strengthen dialogue and the role of the AEE as the representative body for Spanish evangelicals in relation to the EEA and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).
General issues were also discussed, such as the need to continue to present and uphold a biblical evangelical identity (which Duarte described in the AEE’s work as a “clear evangelical spirituality”). This includes a clear stance regarding the partisanship and extreme polarisation in political life. On this point, there was complete agreement on not identifying any political party or leader as ‘the’ representative of evangelicals, assessing in each case the positive and negative aspects of each entity or person, whilst always maintaining freedom of conscience and criticism without burning bridges and, at the same time, without being tied to a particular political ideology.
In addition to this meeting, Connie Duarte took part in a gathering —at the same venue—organised for Catalan evangelical leaders. At this invitation-only conversation, Duarte presented the European Evangelical Alliance’s identity and work, whilst Marcos Zapata outlined the Spanish Alliance’s history, activities, goals and short- and medium-term projects, followed by a question-and-answer session and discussion.
Duarte concluded her visit to Barcelona by taking part the following day in the Idea 2026 event (open to the public), which took place at the New Evangelical Hospital of Barcelona.
There, the topic of “A prophetic voice in a changing world” was addressed by several speakers and a roundtable.
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