The executive committee met on Friday 17th June 2024, at the premises of ROHERO parish in Bujumbura.
The executive meeting, presided by the resident bishop Daniel Wandabula, was also attended by different church leaders including the Rt. Hon. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel SINZOHAGERA the Legal representative and dean of Superintendents, the Rev. Lazare BANKURUNAZE his deputy Legal representative and bishop’s assistant, conference laity, conference secretary, district superintendents and their laity, board chairpersons, coordinators of different sectors and presidents of Methodist Organizations at conference level.
The Rt. Hon. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel SINZOHAGERA on behalf of the church and himself expressed his sincere gratitude to Almighty God for enabling all the delegates and the resident bishop for a safe trip to Bujumbura.
The resident bishop opened the executive meeting by prayer and the legal representative delivered morning devotion quoted from Psalms 130:5, “I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope”. The Reverend told delegates to be faithful to GOD, wait upon Him, and that those who believe in JESUS CHRIST will not be ashamed.
The executive meeting agenda mainly focused on the process of nominating candidates for Episcopacy, and received variousreports of Board of Ordained Ministry, Board of Discipleship, finance & administration, statistics. A brief report was also presented by CG delegates.
On the report of the delegates to the General Conference, the head of delegation the Rev Emanuel SINZOHAGERA indicated that the General Conference voted for regionalization so that the regions organize themselves taking into account of their cultural context. For Rev Emmanuel SINZOHAGERA, this legislation will enable for instance to define marriage in accordance withour own context: union between a man and a woman. He also reported that the Burundi Annual Conference was granted an episcopal area. In addition to that, the CG endorsed the creation of a new central conference called the East Africa Central Conference. He added that this regionalization decision will be ratified by the Annual Conferences after receiving the materials which will be used during this ratification and promised to give a detailed report to the annual conference session scheduled on July 17th, 2024.
The members of the executive committee received the report and appreciated the decision taken by the General Conferenceon Burundi Annual Conference.
During the executive meeting, two Episcopal candidates were officially known “The Rt. honorable Rev. EMMANUEL SINZOHAGERA and the Rev. Lazare BANKURUNAZE”. Nominations for episcopacy candidates will be held on July 17-20, 2024 during the 7th session of the annual conference.
The resident bishop expressed his gratitude towards the leadership of the annual conference and gave glory to God for the decisions taken during GC. He urged the cabinet to prepare well the 7th annual session as it will be a very important moment for the church in Burundi.
Other reports were presented and approved by the members of the executive committee. The Rev. Valentine CIMPAYEthe district superintendent of Bujumbura District, closed the meeting by prayer.