Casely Essamuah, "evangelical and ecumenical" pastor, to lead Global Christian Forum

Casely Essamuah will be the next secretary of the Global Christian Forum, after the retirement at the end of June of Larry Miller, who has led the group for six years.

The GCF committee chose Essamuah, who describes himself as “evangelical and ecumenical,” at its meeting in February at the Taizé Com­munity in France. The ecumenical association in­cludes the Orthodox and Protestant denominations that make up the World Council of Churches, as well as leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance, the Pentecostal World Fellow­ship, and the Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The forum’s next global gathering, bringing together 250 to 300 leaders, will take place April 23–28 in Bogotá, Colombia.

Ordained in the United Methodist Church in Ghana, Essamuah has worked for the last 13 years as global missions and local outreach pastor of the Bay Area Community Church in Annapolis, Mary­land. Coming from Africa to minister in North America, he views himself as a “bridge builder” between churches in the Global North and Global South.

Wes Granberg-Michaelson, cochair of the search committee, said, “In a time when the majority of the world’s Christians now live in the Southern Hemisphere, creating new tensions and challenges in the life of world Christianity, Dr. Casely Essamuah is uniquely equipped to serve the cause of unity in the global body of Christ.” —Global Christian Forum