Brethren News

International Brethren Conferences on Mission

The IBCM International Planning Group is now in a position to make a preliminary announcement, giving the key details of the IBCM6 conference.

We request that recipients of this announcement please make the details widely known in their own countries, by word of mouth and through the magazines, email services and websites which serve Brethren churches and bodies.

Our Italian Brethren have offered to host the conference, as they did in 1996 for the IBCM2 conference.

Reservations have been made for the conference at the Hotel Selene, Pomezia, near Rome. It is to take place DV on Monday 22 - Friday 26 June 2015.

Much detailed planning has yet to be done, but it is proposed that the theme of the conference should be 'That the world may know' (John 17: 23 (ESV)). Conference Bible teaching would be on passages from the Lord Jesus' upper room ministry in John 13 - 17.

It is expected that the IBCM6 conference will be succeeded by an Italian national gathering at the same location on Saturday 27 June 2015.

A brochure and booking form for the conference should be available in the first part of 2014. These, and more details, will be posted on the IBCM website (www.ibcm.net) as they become available. All who would like to receive more information directly about the conference are invited to express their interest to neil.summerton@btinternet.com

The Hotel Selene in Pomezia (see http://www.hotelselene.com/ for details and photographs) is close to the city of Rome and 30-40 minutes' road journey from both of Rome's international airports (Fiumicino and Ciampino). It is a complex of two hotels, able to accommodate up to 600 participants, with full conference facilities. The IBCM6 conference will therefore be taking place on a single, self-contained site. Conference and accommodation costs are expected to be broadly similar to those for the IBCM5 conference in Strasbourg in 2011, though of course final costs for 2015 cannot be predicted two years in advance.

Please pray for:

•    the organising groups, both the IBCM International Planning Group and the IBCM Italian national committee which is being formed. The first meeting of the national committee with representatives of the IBCM International Planning Group is to take place on Saturday 4 May

•    the detailed planning of the conference programme and selection of speakers from all parts of the world

•  the provision of funds to enable national leaders who do not have financial means to participate in the conference.

Please also pray for the IBCM regional conferences that are taking place. There has been a conference for Portuguese-speaking countries in Rio de Janeiro in September 2012. This year there are to be (1) the Partners in the Harvest Conference for Asia-Oceania on 27 - 31 May in the Philippines; (2) the IBCM-Hispano Conference for Spanish-speaking countries on 31 July - 3 August in Buenos Aires; and (3) the Pan-African Brethren Conference on Missions on 12 - 16 August in Nairobi; and next year a Caribbean Brethren Leaders Conference on 9 - 12 June 2014 in St Kitts. (For more details of these conferences see www.ibcm.net.)

Careful consideration was given as to whether the IBCM6 conference could again be held somewhere else than in Europe. But mainly for reasons of travel costs from most places in the world, and of the necessary travel costs of the organisers (who meet their own expenses), it was concluded that this further conference should be in Italy.

The IBCM International Planning Group comprises Fares Marzone, Italy (Chairman), Paul Joshua (India), Reynald Kozycki (France), Ken Newton (Australia), Kelvin Samwata (Zambia) and Neil Summerton, UK (Secretary). It is supported by a wider group of people from all parts of the world who are consulted by email.

The IBCM International Planning Group

Source: Adelphoi News (Apr 30, 2013)