Bringing a long history of rural living to the international stage, IRCA-Europe bridges the barriers of history, culture and language to come to together to share our experiences and challenges.

IRCA Europe Team

IRCA Europe contact person: Irena Stefanova

Rev Matt Jeffrey, UK, Chair of IRCA Europe and CEO of the Arthur Rank Centre

Rev’d Matt is Chief Executive Officer of The Arthur Rank Centre, a national charity in the UK dedicated to supporting rural churches, farming, and rural communities across all Christian traditions. Having led churches for several decades, he is deeply committed to ecumenical working. Rev’d Matt brings extensive experience in rural mission, leadership development, and pastoral support. His ministry focuses on equipping local clergy and lay leaders, fostering vocational calling, and creating practical resources and spaces for reflection that help rural leaders and congregations flourish. He has a passion for spiritual depth, creative storytelling, biblical reflection, and building collaborative partnerships that advocate for the flourishing and well-being of rural life across Europe and beyond.

He says: “I am honoured to have been elected European Chair of IRCA, and look forward to developing wider connections across the European Churches. We have such a breadth of history and experience, and stories of hope and transformation to share, as we each seek to serve Jesus in our regions. At a troubling time, my prayers are for the continent, that we might bring light into the darkness and peace into turmoil.”

Irena Stefanova, a Methodist pastor from Bulgaria and ministering in North Macedonia with small rural communities. She works with elderly church members, visits people in their homes, preaches, organises training for women from Macedonian and Serbian districts, and seeks new ways of mission amid a declining population and limited resources.

Eastern Europe

Rev Ilona Szokacs Nagy, Romania, is secretary for the Eastern Europe section. She is the contact person; email

Ilona is a Reformed minister with experience in parish ministry, pastoral care, and ecumenical and intercultural dialogue. Since 2000, she has served in different contexts within the Hungarian Reformed Church in Romania, including Bucharest and Moldova. Since 2007, she has served as minister of a rural congregation in Bârghiș, Transylvania.

Her ministry includes preaching, Bible studies, pastoral counselling, leading worship and religious celebrations, as well as developing youth and community programmes. She has a particular interest in ecumenism and in creating opportunities for dialogue and cooperation between people of different Christian traditions, cultures and religious backgrounds. Her theological education, pastoral experience, and commitment to ecumenical and intercultural dialogue have shaped her conviction that empathy, mutual understanding and genuine encounter are essential for Christian witness and for building peaceful and inclusive communities.

Rev Márk László Gyula, Romania, is a Transylvanian Reformed pastor, member of the European branch of IRCA since 2010, who has already served as a speaker at several IRCA conferences or participated as a simple member. He serves in Eastern Europe – Romania, in one of the Hungarian Reformed churches belonging to the Transylvanian Reformed Church District. He also served in a rural environment for several years. 

The father of 2 daughters, he has been serving as a pastor for 27 years, and he has always been interested like rural church service and improving the quality of service and life of pastors serving in the countryside. He is open to learning and discovering new things and to ecumenical relationships. He considers the service of Christ, the commitment to the service of other people, to be his important task.

Vas Jozsef, Romania, is the youth representative. 21 years old, he is a Reformed theology student in Kolozsvár (Cluj, Romania) and comes from a small village in Transylvania called Bözöd. He is currently preparing for ordained ministry, and he has a deep interest in the life and future of rural congregations.

Serving as the Eastern Europe youth representative for IRCA Europe, he believes that tradition and renewal together can strengthen the rural communities.

IRCA-Europe finds its voice – Conference 2016 in Sibiu, Romania

Information from Conference 2016 is found here

Conference 2016 Addresses and Reports are here