National and Regional Representative and other bodies linking the churches

Here is a brief introduction to the principal representative bodies within the Spanish evangelical churches.

FEREDE, the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities, official representative body of most of the evangelical churches and many associations. The 7th Day Adventists are also part of this body as far as relations with the state go. The FEREDE grew out of a commission for the defence of the evangelical churches which existed in the last years of the Franco era. It negotiated the Agreement between the churches and the state, which has this year celebrated its tenth anniversary. This agreement allowed theoretical equal treatment of evangelicals, jews and muslims to that which the Catholic church receives from the state. In fact, this has only in a few areas been achieved. Pray for the general secretary, Mariano Blázquez. Spanish site

Consejos Evangélicos, regional official bodies representing registered chuches to the regional governments. In some areas they double as associations of ministers and most organise events, be they evangelistic, cultural, etc.. There are not yet Evangelical Councils in all regions, but there are in the most important ones, such as Madrid and Catalonia.

Alianza Evangélica The Spanish Evangelical Alliance is an association of individuals and does not include churches and organisations which are represented through the FEREDE. This association is composed almost entirely of the more conservative church members and defends a conservative doctrinal position. It is linked to the European EA and the World EA.

Asociaciones/ Fraternidades de Ministros Ministers' fraternals exist in most regions. In some cases they are synonymous to the Evangelical Councils. In other regions, such as Madrid, the activities are split between the two organisations. In one or two regions fraternals are arranged along provincial lines (Andalusia) or according to theological tendencies (Catalonia).

AME The Association of Foreign Missions brought together mostly North American and northern European missions/ missionaries at first. Now there are also many missionaries from other parts of the world, particularly Latin America. This has transformed the face of missions in Spain over the past decade.

ACPRESS This is the press office of the Alianza Evangélica. It provides the media and other interested parties with information about the evangelical churches and also other information of general religious and social interest. This has grown to include the well-know Protestante Digital web news service, a sound archive and other media services under the RedIMIR banner.

There are links to some of these organisations from the main links page