CARIBBEAN BAPTISTS FACE DOWN CHALLENGES
by Eron Henry
The Caribbean Baptist Fellowship (CBF) held its General Assembly from March 18‑21, in Montego Bay, on Jamaica’s
north coast.
The assembly, normally held every four years, brought together Baptist leaders and delegates from various countries in
the Caribbean for worship, fellowship, study and decision meetings.
Among the most significant developments were changes in the leadership of the CBF, one of six regional fellowships of
the Baptist World Alliance. William Thompson, immediate past president of the Bahamas National Baptist Missionary and
Education Convention and a vice president of the BWA, was elected CBF president. Thompson succeeds Burchell Taylor
of Jamaica who was elected CBF president in 2006 in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Everton Jackson, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Montego Bay and a former president of the Jamaica Baptist Union
(JBU), was elected executive secretary/treasurer. He succeeds Peter Pinder of the Bahamas who served in that position
and as BWA regional secretary for the Caribbean for 15 years, beginning in 1995. Jackson is expected to be named BWA
regional secretary for the Caribbean during the Baptist World Congress in Honolulu, Hawai'i, from July 28 to August 1.
The executive secretary/treasurer has day-to-day responsibility for the CBF.
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PHOTO: Above: BWA General Secretary Neville Callam, center, and Baptist warden Glenroy Lalor, extreme right,
pose with Baptist students at the United Theological College of the West Indies during the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship
General Assembly in March