Pastor Erwan Cloarec, new president of the National Council of Evangelicals of France

This Tuesday, June 7, Erwan Cloarec, pastor of the Federation of Evangelical Baptist Churches of France (FEEBF), was appointed president of the National Council of Evangelicals of France (CNEF). He succeeds Pastor Christian Blanc who had been at the head of the CNEF since June 2019, a handover under the sign of unity and generational change. 

Christian Blanc has officially passed his torch as president of the National Council of Evangelicals of France (CNEF) to the 42-year-old pastor, Erwan Cloarec, during the CNEF Plenary Assembly which took place this Tuesday, June 7 in Paris.

In his speech at the end of his mandate, Christian Blanc underlined “the fraternal climate of quality” in which this transmission took place, thus paying tribute to the work of those “who laid down the founding and structuring texts of the CNEF”.

It is on this basis of fraternity, communion and unity that Erwan Cloarec intends to build his mandate, well aware that this must never be taken for granted and that we must continue to work in this direction. The evangelical organization, which will celebrate its 12th anniversary in June, was indeed founded with the ambition of bringing the churches together.

The new president also recalled the importance of “connections”, using the name of a CNEF magazine for which he had been entrusted. A title that says, according to him, "what must remain the foundation of the CNEF, irrigate its vocation, and the vision it carries for the world: the regular reminder that we are called to be and seek this communion that is given to us".

Christian Blanc, for his part, spoke of the “good relations” of the CNEF with the Salvation Army, the Protestant Federation of France as well as the Conference of Bishops of France. In conclusion, he quoted an African proverb which invites the new team to continue moving forward in this spirit of unity: “if you want to go far, walk with the others”.

In their speeches, emphasis was also placed on “generational change”. For Christian Blanc, the election of Erwan Cloarec is the fulfillment of a wish he had expressed at the start of his mandate in 2019; that of seeing the “CNEF generation”, which did not know the world “before” the evangelical organization, take the reins.

“I believe we are there! “, has rightly declared the newly elected president, recalling that this new generation is now “widely represented in the renewed office” as well as in the permanent team.

Erwan Cloarec then set out the three major orientations of the organization, he believes that the CNEF must be a “spiritual body” and an “institutional force” to inspire “a missional impetus”.

A mission that he intends to carry out with his eyes fixed on the Lord and by celebrating the fact that the "CNEF is first and foremost the work of God, the visible expression, before God and the world, of the unity that God gives in Christ,” and that before anything else.

As the organization enters a “new season” with this election, Erwan Cloarec tells us that the challenge of his mandate will be to make a success of this generational transition. For this, he wishes to "continue to gather", "preserve the care of unity" while working on the theological aspect to help the CNEF to "think about itself" and to "deepen its identity". It also intends to inspire and accompany a new missionary impetus.

"I am committed to supporting this transition by helping the collective to remain united and to build meaning," he added.

Camille Westphal Perrier