CARIBBEAN BAPTISTS FACE DOWN CHALLENGES continued
taking place “amidst the challenge of a leadership drought,” the convention reported.
Some conventions declared major undertakings. The Bahamas convention, which is celebrating 220 years of Baptist
witness in the country, is constructing a multipurpose Baptist Complex that includes a 4,000-seat auditorium and new
headquarters for the organization.
The Baptist Convention of Western Cuba reported significant growth, baptizing 1,590 persons in 2009. In addition to its
288 regular churches, the convention has more than 1,800 house churches as part of its ministry.
Baptist churches continue to minister in, and even use challenging social and economic situations as ministry
opportunities. The French Federation of Baptists of Guadeloupe, which has six pastors and 14 churches, joined other
Christian churches in addressing some of the needs and problems associated with the 44-day general strike that virtually
crippled the French Caribbean Island in 2009. “The Lord used the strike to bring the churches together,” said Dick, the
CBF vice president and immediate past president of the Baptist church group in that country.
The CBF took note of the region’s place in the life of the global Baptist family. The BWA planned three Living Water
conferences in the Bahamas, Barbados and Cuba in 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively; Victor Samuel Gonzalez of Cuba
and Burchell Taylor of Jamaica are expected to be elected vice presidents of the BWA; two persons from the region are
staff members at the BWA Center in Falls Church, Virginia, in the United States – Neville Callam, general secretary, and
Eron Henry, associate director for communications; and Karl Johnson, general secretary of the JBU, will be one of the
keynote speakers at the Baptist World Congress in Hawai'i.
A challenge facing the region is to adequately meet the needs of a region diverse in language and culture. Concerns were
expressed in meetings that the CBF needs to do a better
(Continued on next page)
PHOTOS:
The Bahamas convention is constructing a multipurpose Baptist Complex with a 4,000-seat auditorium
- William Thompson, new CBF president
“Common experiences . . . a history of being colonized, a shared history of slavery.”
— Deonie Duncan, Jamaican Baptist pastor
“We are all guests in these lands through enslavement
and immigration on Amerindian lands”
— Glenroy Lalor, Baptist warden, UTCWI

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