World Evangelical Alliance

The World Evangelical Alliance was founded in London 1846 as a broad union of Christians and churches from all Protestant denominations to Forster global mission and advocate for religious freedom. It led to many national alliances on several continents with structures developed locally. The highest body was the International Conference meeting every 6 years, an International Secretary represented the Evangelical Alliance.

In 1951 it was reorganized on a broader level as World Evangelical Fellowship with regional alliances, now with a focus of Protestant denominations with an evangelical conviction. The General Assembly of all national evangelical alliances every 6 years became the highest governing body, installing the International Council with equal representation of the regions, which in turn elects the Secretary General for 5 year terms (before 2005 International Secretary).

As of 2021 the WEA is made up of churches joining national evangelical alliances in 143 countries and 30 national partners with together 600 million adherents, the majority in the Global South. There is a new academic research project underway to verify the present number. Beside the members, there are 109 global organisations listed as associate members. There are regional evangelical alliance in Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Central Asia, Europe, Latin America, MENA, North America and the Pacific region. Some of the national churches belonging to WEA through a national evangelical alliance are at the same time members of the World Council of Churches. The Secretary General of WEA is a consultant to the Faith and Order Commission of WCC.

The WEA has headquarters offices in New York, Bonn and Manila. Besides its Office of the Secretary General with its Office of Interfaith and Interfaith relations, WEA has operational departments in six ministry departments: Global Advocacy (home of the Religious Liberty Commission), Global Theology (home of the Theological Commission), Global Witness (with the Mission Commission), Alliance Engagement, Church Engagement (with the Women’s Commission) and Public Engagement.

 

The WEA Statement of Faith reads:

"We believe in the Holy Scriptures as originally given by God, divinely inspired, infallible, entirely trustworthy; and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct (...) One God, eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (...) Our Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, His virgin birth, His sinless human life, His divine miracles, His vicarious and atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His mediatorial work, and His Personal return in power and glory (...) The Salvation of lost and sinful man through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith apart from works, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit (...) The Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the believer is enabled to live a holy life, to witness and work for the Lord Jesus Christ (...) The Unity of the Spirit of all true believers, the Church, the Body of Christ (...) The Resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation."