Baptist World 56-4

WORSHIP
Morning worship throughout the week focused on the work of outstanding Baptists throughout the past
400 years, with readings from their writings, sermons, letters or interviews, including Baptist pioneers Helwys
and Smyth; missionary leaders such as George Liele, William Carey, Ann Judson, Johann Oncken, and Lottie
Moon; outstanding preachers such as Charles Spurgeon, George Truett, Rubens Lopes, and William Tolbert;
and Baptist prophets Martin Luther King, Jr., Samuel Sharpe, and William Knibb.
A special quadricentennial service was held on Thursday, July 30, at the Singelkerk, a Mennonite church
built in 1608 on Amsterdam’s Singel Canal, a year before the first Baptists met in a bakery on the Amstel River,
a short distance further west. The worship service featured a Litany of Thanksgiving led by young Baptist
leaders drawn from the BWA Emerging Leaders Network. Denton Lotz, former general secretary of the BWA,
was the keynote speaker at this service.
Lotz stated that the quest for religious freedom is a distinctive Baptist tradition, but the threats to religious
freedom in the 21st century are different from those 400 years ago. In the 21st century, “most civilized and
democratic governments recognize religious freedom as an inherent right,” and the “United Nations Declaration
on Human Rights of 1948 affirms religious freedom and the right to conversion,” Lotz explained. According
to Lotz, who served as BWA general secretary for 19 years until his retirement in 2007, “The real enemy
of religious freedom is the religion of secularism which wants . . . to [confine] religion to its buildings and to
prohibit a public expression of faith.”
FORUMS
Several forums were held during the week that focused primarily on the 400th celebration. One forum
included the participation of several leading Baptist scholars in historical theology and church history who led
discussions on the history of Baptist witness in different regions of the world.
Timothy George, a specialist in historical theology and dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford
University in Alabama in the United States, spoke on the history of the Baptist movement in North America;
Horace Russell, former president of the United Theological College of the West Indies in Jamaica and retired
professor of historical theology at Palmer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania in the United States, reflected
on Baptist history in the Caribbean; and Dinorah Méndez, Mexican church historian, assessed the progress of
Baptist work in Latin America.
Also leading discussions were Peter Morden of Spurgeon’s College in London, England, who assessed
the development of Baptist witness in Europe; Solomon Ishola, General Secretary of the Nigerian Baptist
Convention, who examined the growth and development of Baptist work in Africa; and Ken Manley, former
principal at Whitley College of the University of Melbourne in Australia, who appraised the history of Baptist life
in Asia and the Pacific.
Another forum saw a presentation by William Brackney, Director of the Acadia Centre for Baptist and
Anabaptist Studies, a cooperative project between the Acadia Divinity College and the Acadia University
Library in Nova Scotia, Canada, who gave an analysis of the Baptist contribution to social transformation.
(Continued on next page)

PHOTOS: The congregation attending the quadricentennial service at the Singelkerk, a Mennonite church in
Amsterdam;
Two members of the Emerging Leaders Network lead the Litany of Thanksgiving during the quadricentennial
service in Amsterdam;
Former BWA general secretary Denton Lotz preaches during the quadricentennial service at the Singelkerk;
Dutch musicians lead worship during the Annual Gathering in Ede
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