ANNUAL Baptists Meet in
GATHERING T
Malaysia By Eron Henry
he Baptist World Alliance attracted more than 300 Baptist leaders and delegates from more than 60 countries to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from July 4-9, for its Annual Gathering.
The yearly meetings involve a number of BWA groups, including
the General Council and the Executive Committee; executive sub- committees and divisional advisory committees; women’s, men’s, and youth departments; regional groupings; and commissions of the divisions of Freedom & Justice, Mission, Evangelism & Theological Reflection, and others. Highlights included the Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights
Award, which was presented to Wati Aier, principal of the Oriental Theological Seminary in Dimapur in the Northeast Indian state of Nagaland. Aier, convener of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, formed in 2008, was recognized for helping to broker peace between three nationalist groups in Nagaland. The BWA accepted four new member bodies from Africa, two
from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – the Association of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Congo, an association of 3,021 members in 36 churches, and the Baptist Churches Union Community of Congo, comprising 46,321 members in 372 churches. These groups bring to 10 the number of member bodies in the DRC, one of the largest countries in Africa. Others accepted were the Baptist Convention of Sudan which
includes 18 churches and another 32 that are in the process of being established, and the Free Evangelical Baptist Church of the Central African Republic which has 57,000 members in 250 churches. There are now two BWA member bodies in Sudan and four in the Central African Republic.
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