Reiner Bohlander has taken office as director and general secretary of the Swiss Bible Society (SBS), working from the organisation's new premises in Biel/Bienne. He succeeds Winfried Bader, who had led the society on an interim basis. The appointment was reported by La FREE, the French-speaking federation of free evangelical churches in Switzerland.
Bohlander is German by origin and studied history and political science at Heidelberg. He holds a master's degree in Catholic theology and is currently completing a master's in ethics. He has worked as a journalist and editor in several media outlets and later as editor-in-chief at a publishing house. He is married with two children and comes from the Christian Catholic Church in Switzerland.
Among his priorities, Bohlander lists consolidating the society's finances and raising its visibility — on its website, on social media and locally in Biel — as well as showing the Bible's relevance in present-day society. He intends to address Switzerland's linguistic and cultural diversity directly: having met churches in Biel, he plans to do the same in Lugano, and after strengthening his French he wants closer exchanges with French-speaking Switzerland. "In the first exchanges I listened a great deal, made contacts and gathered ideas," he said. "And I am convinced that our fundamental mission remains: to enable each and every person to have access to the Bible."
(Originally published in French. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: La FREE — lafree.ch
