European Evangelical leaders addressed their roles as transforming agents in an increasingly secularized Europe at the conclusion of their four day annual assembly in Tavira, Portugal on October 22.

Over 200 Christian leaders representing 35 countries gathered for the joint four-day assembly held by the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA), the European Evangelical Missionary Alliance (EEMA) and Hope for Europe (HfE), building stronger ties and renewing their faith focused on the theme, "Gospel Relevance in Europe Today," and gave the continent's top Evangelical leaders a chance to reflect, bond, pray, renew their faith, and share their stories.

"Christendom is dead, and thank God," said Gordon Showell-Rogers, General Secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA), during the closing session. "Europe desperately needs God to visit us and for God's people to live as God's people."

"As a group of evangelical Christian leaders, we have benefited greatly from being together and thinking about our respective responsibilities in Europe," said Showell-Rogers. "Our hope is that what's happened this week might become strategic for the welfare of European society."

The meeting also featured special seminars on Religious Freedom and the European Union that gave the leaders new insights and resources on how to engage with and transform the secular culture.

"I think of my role as helping Evangelicals around Europe to become the salt and light in society," said Julia Doxat-Purser, EEA's political representative and religious liberties coordinator, who led one of the seminars. "We try to engage, consult, train, and teach about best practices."

Attendees learned about new developments in the EEA Brussels office, which was established several years ago to represent Evangelicals before the European Union. Tove Videbaek, a veteran journalist, long-time politician, and new Brussels representative, said politicians are slowly starting to take notice of the EEA´s united Evangelical voice.

Networking opportunities sealed new and closer partnerships among the hundreds of European evangelicals for a solidified alliance. EEA members voted unanimously to accept the membership applications from the United Christian Council in Israel and the Protestant Evangelical Alliance in Bosnia and Hercegovina (EABH), raising the number of EEA-member alliances to 35. Also the European Evangelical Accrediting Alliance (EEAA) and JANZ Team International were accepted during the assembly.