As a member of the Finance Committee of Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS) I’m on my way to Indonesia after a short stopover in Singapore. Read more in the following press release of EMS.
P R E S S R E L E A S E
Transparency – Solidarity – Sustainability
Treasurers‘ Conference of EMS Member Churches Sounds Out Possibilities of Finance Management Under the Banner of Christianity
(Stuttgart, 30. March 2016) “Churches all over the world have a wide variety of different finance models, each of which has a major impact on church structures. The exciting thing is that they all work and it is important to examine what concepts are transferable to other or our own general conditions,” says Dr. Martin Kastrup, member of the Consistory and Treasurer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg. Kastrup and his colleagues from the 23 churches and five church organisations which co-operate in the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS) in Stuttgart are meeting at the EMS “Treasurers‘ Conference” in Seminyak (Indonesia) on 5 to 8 April. “We are fully aware that churches in Korea, Indonesia and elsewhere have long become donor and sending churches. In Indonesia we will have the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of other churches. We hope that each delegate will be able to take home with them ideas for their own further development. That is our aim,” says Kastrup.
The Treasurers‘ Conference will also deal with sustainable finance management and considered ethical financial investment. “This is certainly new to many member churches,” explains Peter Stoll, Chairman of the EMS Finance Committee. “But when churches start to build reserves and want to place them in safe, yield-bringing investments without contradicting the church’s mission, they will probably make the same considerations as the churches in Germany.” As a result, the EMS invited delegates from the Evangelical Bank and the Bank im Bistum Essen (BIB) to present their sustainability strategies. “But we are also looking forward to seeing what sustainability aspects Indian or Arab churches bring along with them,” says Stoll.
Press contact: Regina Karasch-Böttcher, Secretary Press and Public Relations, karasch-boettcher@ems-online.org,Tel. +49 711 636 78 85, Mobile +49 178 6200052
Information on site: Rudolf Bausch, Managing Director and Head of Administration and Finances, bausch@ems-online.org, Tel. +49 178 6367834
Jürgen Reichel, General Secretary, reichel@ems-online.org, Tel. +49 178 636 78 31
Jürgen Reichel, General Secretary, reichel@ems-online.org, Tel. +49 178 636 78 31