New Brazil Administrative Region Recognizes Growth, Financial Independence

Top Seventh-day Adventist world church leadership voted October 12 to split the Northeast Brazil Union Mission into two administrative bodies—the Northeast Brazil Union Missionand East Brazil Union Mission.

NEW UNION: A PowerPoint graphic shows the Southeast Brazil Union Conference. Church leaders renamed the union today when they split another union in two, creating a similarly named church region. The new union demonstrates church growth and financial stability in Brazil, church leaders said.The move recognizes burgeoning membership and impeccable handling of finances in the region, church leaders said. It comes on the heels of a similar realignment of the church’s administrative structure in Brazil last year.

The former Northeast Brazil Union Mission is home to almost 340,000 Adventists and a growing network of churches and church-run schools. Membership there has more than doubled since the union was established in 1996. As of July this year, the church in the region welcomed more than 20,000 new believers, or about 3,000 accessions per month.

“This region for us has a strong potential for growth,” said South American Division president Erton Köhler. “The people there are very receptive. We believe that a new union there can give strong support to our church in the region and help fulfill the mission.”

The newly formed Northeast and East Brazil union missions will each begin in 2013 with more than 100 percent of ideal working capital, said world church undertreasurer Juan Prestol. Neither region has any debt, he added, and both are in “exceptional” financial condition.
—Elizabeth Lechleitner, Adventist News Network