The Mid-Year Meeting of the Inter-European Division (EUD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was held on 26 and 27 May at the Faculté Adventiste du Saléve, in Collonges, France. This ordinary meeting of the governing bodies of the Division and the Unions in this part of Europe has the aim of presenting and approving reports on the Church's mission activity and outlining future plans and projects for the territory.
In his opening message, Mário Brito, EUD president, used the text from Matthew 9:36 to remind his listeners of Jesus' example and His mandate to care for people. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” read Brito. “How can we imitate that? If we want to be free to do it, first, we need to pray that God delivers us from our selfishness. Then, we need to ask God to use us to offer a solution to suffering and an alternative to despair. That solution and that alternative is the Kingdom of God,” he added.
Spiritual moments are always awaited and lived by the participants as experiences of communion with God and with each other. On the second day of the meeting, Andrei Cretu, president of the Italian Union, focused on the prophet Samuel's experience with God. In this context, the Bible refers to how the Word of God was rare in Israel, but God found a way to communicate it to Samuel, and he heard it and proclaimed it.
“Then, as today, the Word of God appears even where it seems not to exist,” said Cretu, going on to say, “God calls by name those who are willing to listen to Him. The Word of God may be rare, but it's not absent. Listen to God, listen to people, develop relationships and share the Word.”
Another point of discussion at the meeting was the information about the Inter-European Division's participation in GC Session 2025 in St Louis, USA. Barna Magyarosi, Executive Secretary, informed the Council members that the EUD will have 107 official delegates. The plan for participation in the exhibit by the whole territory, in a united and harmonious manner, was also presented.
In the Treasury report, Norbert Zens began, as usual, with a spiritual reflection, referring to the woman who offered everything she had in the Temple. Pointing out that Jesus also gave everything he had, Zens explained that “everything we offer of the best we are and what we have is deserved by our Saviour”.
The Treasurer announced that 2023 was the year with the largest increase in tithes and offerings ever in the Division, which was partly due to a significant inheritance and the effects of the Sabbath School quarterly dedicated to stewardship. “This shows that there is a positive effect on people's lives when it comes to Christian stewardship,” he said. “It's not primarily about money. It's primarily about your spiritual experience, the trust that God is taking care of your life.” The report also showed that the offering of the excess of the thirteenth Saturday in 2023, for the EUD, exceeded all expectations and that, worldwide, the value of the offerings exceeded that of the tithes, which demonstrates the great involvement of the members in the mission.
As a result, the Administration announced an extraordinary financial support to mission in Unions of 5M€, from 2026 to 2028.
The mission of the Church in Europe was always in focus with presentations from departments and institutions, namely: Hope Channel International with the Global Initiative Impact 2.0; Adventist Mission on mission to secular society and Muslims, education and its contribution to mission; communication and the media role and potential; youth and the conclusions from Pulse Meet and the presentation on mission to Australia in 2025; religious liberty and the trends at the European Union level; and, finally, the presentation of the upcoming Biblical Sexuality Conference in October, by the Ministerial Association.
At the end of the meeting, President Mario Brito stated, “We are a small territory, small population, small membership. I don’t worry about that. What we need is consistency and strength in defending Christ’s values. God doesn’t want to annulate our thinking but, rather, use us to change people’s lives around us. Mission is how we can go and bring other people to enrich our family.”
Picture: Andrei Cretu, president of the Italian Union (Paulo Macedo)