BWA NEWS IN BRIEF
TAIWAN: BAPTISTS AID TYPHOON VICTIMS

Baptists in Taiwan and around the world are assisting victims of Typhoon Morakot, which made landfall in the
southern part of the island just before midnight on Friday, August 7.
Several hundred persons are confirmed dead and at least 600 people are missing. In Xiaolin, a mountain village
with 1,300 residents, the number of persons who died is estimated to be as high as 380 after most of the houses
were buried by a massive mudslide.
Joseph Tseng Ching-En, General Secretary of the Chinese Baptist Convention (CBC) in Taiwan, reported to the
Baptist World Alliance (BWA) that “most [of the victims] were swallowed and buried by landslides.” Many of them, he
said, were overwhelmed by a river that had flooded and overflowed its banks.
At least six Baptists have died, including five members from one Baptist family, while another Baptist member, a
police officer, went missing after trying to rescue persons affected by the typhoon.
Tseng told the BWA that 15 Baptist churches are in the disaster zone. In the first few weeks after the storm, most
of these churches could not be contacted by the convention due to blocked roads, bridges that were destroyed, and
the loss of electricity and telephone services. Churches that could be reached were found to be badly damaged or
destroyed.
The CBC has 209 churches and more than 14,000 members.
Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief and development arm of the BWA, is coordinating the global Baptist
response and made an initial donation of US$10,000 to CBC as support for the relief work currently being
undertaken by the Taiwan convention. Other assistance came from conventions and churches in Malaysia, Hong
Kong, and the United States. Baptists in Taiwan made donations, organized relief teams, and ran a camp for children
who were affected by the storm.
“We have been watching with concern the traumatic impact that this typhoon has wrought on your country,” Paul
Montacute, director of BWAid, wrote to Tseng. “On behalf of David Coffey, the BWA president, and Neville Callam,
the BWA general secretary, I send to you, your convention and your country, our deepest condolences at this time.”
“We express deepest thanks from our hearts,” Tseng wrote to the BWA in response to assistance offered by
Baptists. “We can feel the love which is based on the love from our Heavenly Father and by the mercy of Lord Jesus
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
Japan, the Philippines and China were also affected by the typhoon.
PHOTO: Rev. Wong from the Rescue Committee of the Chinese Baptist Convention in Taiwan prays with
and hands over monetary assistance to Rev. Liu of Lau-Nong village, whose home and church were destroyed by
Typhoon Morakot. Other members of the church lost relatives and property in the typhoon
ITALY: BAPTISTS AND CATHOLICS REACH AGREEMENT ON MARRIAGE

Baptists and Roman Catholics in Italy signed an agreement on “mixed” or interchurch marriages between members of
the two Christian faith traditions. Called “A common document for a pastoral approach to marriages between Catholics and
Baptists in Italy,” the agreement addresses Baptists and Catholics who marry each other, in order to help these couples
in their preparation for marriage and family life. It also seeks to deepen couples’ awareness of their rights and obligations
toward each other, and clarify their relationship with their respective churches.
With this document, said Anna Maffei, president of the Christian Evangelical Baptist Union of Italy (UCEBI), “we offer
to our communities and our pastors a practical guide so that the confessional difference that remains between the future
spouses may not be experienced as an obstacle but as enrichment.”
Maffei, who signed the agreement on the behalf of Italian Baptists, said that “respective churches should not be
competitors anymore but places of listening and encouragement to communion,” highlighting “all that is unifying in spirit
and love of God.”
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), who signed for Italian Catholics,
declared that “the document is a common step in the journey of ecumenism between the Catholic Church and the Baptist
churches in Italy in a particularly sensitive field” and is “likely to pave the way for further developments.”
The agreement holds special significance for Baptists. “As the number of Baptists in Italy is very small, only in a few
marriages are both spouses Baptists. In fact Baptists often marry Catholics and this becomes an interchurch marriage,”
states an accompanying document released by the UCEBI. “In order to clarify the situation, it has become necessary to
reach an agreement between the Baptist Union and the Catholic Church.”
There are approximately 6,400 Baptists who hold membership within the 116 churches of the UCEBI. In contrast, more
than 87 percent of the population of more than 60 million in Italy identify themselves as Roman Catholic.
The agreement includes aspects of marriage that are held in common between Baptists and Catholics, such as the
creation of men and women in their diversity and reciprocity, marriage as a parable of the alliance between God and God’s
people, the love shared by the couple, and the duration of marriage.
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