Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB)

Central Office, Jungmannova 9, P.O.Box 466, CZ – 111 21 Praha 1

Department for Ecumenical and International Relations

Tel. 00420 224 999 215, fax 00420 224 999 219, e-mail: ekumena@e-cirkev.cz; www.e-cirkev.cz


15 September 2015

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is a joy for us to work together with all of you in our many partnerships and it is exciting to witness all the ways in which God is actively at work between people in the US and the Czech Republic.  In addition to our various congregational partnerships we also have partnership activities with the ECCB Diakonie and various groups in the US as well as partnership activities with the Protestant Theological Faculty and US Seminaries.  With all of this in mind we are pleased to announce an upcoming Partnership Conference here in the Czech Republic.  The dates for the Conference are   19-26 April 2016.  We would like to invite everyone working with a partnership to send 1 or 2 representatives.  The tentative schedule for our time together is:

Tuesday 19 April-Arrive in Prague, conference begins.

Wednesday 20-Thursay 21 April-Prague. Various presentations and discussions.

Friday 22 April-Sunday 24 April-Weekend in partner congregations.

Monday 25 April-Final day of conference.

Tuesday 26-Conclusion and travel day


Since many of the participants have been part of active partnerships, a lot of the time together will involve sharing.  What are the various partnerships doing?  How do you keep a partnership thriving?  What are some of the best practices?  How can we support one another by discussing the similarities and celebrating the differences?  There will also be time for the development of new partnerships.  The Czech congregations are eager to welcome their partners from the US and look forward to being the hosts for our time together.

Although there is not much time before April 2016 we hope that it will be enough time to prepare for this meeting. To assist us with our preparations it will be essential to know who is planning to participate in this partnership conference. Therefore, we would like to ask you if you are planning to participate. Please be so kind as to respond by Monday 19 October. If it is not possible to have a definite decision by this date, please let us know. Thank you very much in advance for helping with our planning. We are also including, with this letter, a response form to facilitate your responses.  Please send your responses or questions to ekumena@e-cirkev.cz and put “Partnership conference” in the subject line.  We are also eager to assist you if you would like to make plans for additional time here in the Czech Republic before or after the conference. Shortly after 19 October we will get back to you with more information. 

We look forward to welcoming you to the Czech Republic.

With Warmest Regards,


Rev. Gerhard Frey-ReininghausMs. Ivana Marková

Secretary for Ecumenical and Moderator of the ECCB

International Relations American Working Group