News

Bern 29.01.2012. CD-EUDNews. Eric Monnier, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, born on July 26, 1952, passed away in the early hours of January 22, in Collonges, France, after a long and exhausting illness. Pastor Monnier, originally from Switzerland, was a member of a missionary family, which served the church and humanity around the world. His father, Samuel Monnier, after years in several mission fields, served successively as president of the former Southern European Union and as departmental director for the Euro-Africa Division and at the General Conference. After a period of studies in Collonges, France, where he got degrees in Theology, Education, and Administration of firms, Eric Monnier followed his vocation and accepted, in 1976, a call to work on the Amazon River (as a child, he had lived for a few years in Brazil). His wife, Françoise, a devoted nurse, whom he had married one year before his graduation, was a precious help. They spent three years on the Luzeiro XIV (Luzeiro means “light” in Portuguese), a missionary boat for which Eric Monnier was both pilot and mechanic. His activities included preaching (three sermons a day, every day), building (an average of one church built every month), and training people. In addition, on their way, Françoise and Eric helped as much as they could the needy people on the banks of the great river. One unusual figure stands out on their log for that period: about 32,000 extracted teeth! The name Monnier was often present in the missionary reports at that time.
Enthusiastic as usual, permanently active and with an infectious love for people, pastor Monnier worked for three additional years in Manaus, this time living in a house. After one year of study leave at Andrews University, where he obtained an M.Div, he served as Mission president in Manaus and later in another location, for a total of 19 years in Brazil. After that, he served for almost 12 years as president of the new Bolivian Union. Finally, after 31 years in South America, in 2007 pastor Monnier accepted a call from Bangladesh, where he served as president of the Bangladesh Union Mission. Still affected by the sudden death of his father, and facing difficulties in adapting to the new climate and life conditions, he experienced growing health challenges. In the end, he had to go back to Europe to receive appropriate care and spent his last year in Collonges, facing courageously painful treatments, still hoping to recover. He passed away in his wife’s loving arms, with the certainty of his salvation through Christ.
Eric and Françoise had adopted two children, Valerie and Gabriel. He leaves his wife; his children; a grandchild, Emily; his mother, Yvonne, who lives in Florida, where she chose to remain after the death of her husband; a brother, Yves, who is a pastor in North America; and a sister, Elisabeth, who recently lost her husband, Johan Van Bignoot, former director of the Adventist French Publishing House, following a long period of missionary service as well: he was also the victim of a very painful disease.
Words of sympathy are arriving from all parts of the Adventist world to the Monnier family, sharing the only hope that strengthens our faith: the second coming of Jesus.