Rev. Liagre - image: uniprobel
Revd Dr Guy Liagre, President of the United Protestant Church in Belgium, will be the new General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches starting in June 2012. He succeeds Revd Prof. Dr Viorel Ionita who retired as Interim General Secretary of CEC in October 2011.
He was elected by the Central Committee which met in Geneva on 24/25 January.
After his election Dr Liagre commented: “For many years CEC has worked to ensure that the Christian voice is not neglected on the European scene. I see it as a challenge to work as a general secretary of a european ecumenical organisation in a time in which Europe and the world are rapidly changing into something too hard to easily predict. CEC is in the midst of renewing its organisation and I am delighted to be able to participate in and stimulate that renewal”.
The new General Secretary was born in 1957. After theological studies at the Protestant Theological Faculty in Brussels, he was pastor of churches in Menen (1984-90) and Brussels (1990-2005) before being elected President of the United Protestant Church in 2005, a position to which he was re-elected in 2009.
In addition to being President of his own church, he has participated in, and currently chairs the Belgian Council of Religious Leaders as well as the organization in which the Belgium churches (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox) cooperate. He is also President of the Council which represents all Protestant and Evangelical churches in their relations with the Belgian government.
Dr Liagre has represented his church at many international ecumenical meetings being active in the World Methodist Council, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe. He was a delegate at the CEC Assemblies in Trondheim and Lyon and is currently a member of CEC’s Church and Society Commission.
He gained a doctorate in Modern Church History from the Protestant Faculty of Theology in Brussels and has written extensively. He speaks Dutch, English, French, German and Afrikaans.
