On April 7, 2022, the First Presidency announced new area leadership assignments. With this announcement also came the news of the creation of two missions and a new area of the Church—all on European soil.
New Europe Area Alignment
According to Newsroom, the former Europe and Europe East areas are being realigned, resulting in the Europe Central, Europe North, and Europe East areas. There will now be 23 areas in the Church—six in the United States and Canada and 17 additional areas outside of those two countries.
The new Europe areas will be comprised of the following:
- Europe Central Area: Germany, Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
- Europe East Area: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
- Europe North Area: United Kingdom, Cape Verde, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden.
Newsroom also stated that, at this time, Ukraine and Moldova will be separately overseen by Elder Kyrylo Pokhylko, who is from Kyiv, Ukraine, in his role as an Assistant to the Europe North Area Presidency.
The above area realignments and the new area presidencies assigned to these European areas are effective immediately. The other changes to area leadership assignments will become effective on August 1, 2022.
New European Missions
The First Presidency also announced the creation of a new mission and the reinstatement of a former mission.
The new Spain Madrid North Mission will include areas from the existing Spain Madrid and Spain Barcelona Missions.
The England Bristol Mission will also be reinstated, and the England Birmingham, England London, and England Leeds Missions will all be realigned with this change. In June 2002, the England Bristol Mission was combined with the England Birmingham, England London, and England London South Missions.
Both of these changes will take effect in early July, resulting in a total of 411 missions worldwide.
You can read the full release on Newsroom.
