FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARY

Neville Callam Remembering Baptist Times When the Special Commemorative Edition of The

Baptist Times (BT) was published on January 20, 2012, as its last hardcopy newspaper, a chapter in Baptist history closed with it.

The relationship between the Baptist World Alliance

and BT has been longstanding. The penultimate page of the Offi cial Report produced after the inaugural Baptist World Congress in 1905 was devoted to promoting what was identifi ed as “the offi cial publication” of the Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB). The paper was called The Baptist Times and Freeman. According to the advertisement, each issue of the periodical was priced at the princely sum of one penny. Yet, the “principal contents” revealed the wide-

ranging fare for which the successor paper, Baptist Times, came to be known. These “principal contents” included weekly sermons by

John Clifford, J. T. Forbes, Charles Brown and Thos. Phillips; notes from the “foreign fi eld” contributed by “missionaries in Calcutta, Congo and China;” articles on “Personal Forces of the Denomination” – a profi le of leading Baptists, ordained and lay, in the BUGB; and articles on “Current Continental Theology” by Newton Marshall and on “The Minister in the Study” by H. Wheeler Robinson. In addition, there were lesson notes for Christian Endeavour, a “Ladies’ Page” and a “Children’s Column.”

Throughout its 156 year history, BT has been a helpful

source of information on Baptist life and ministry in the United Kingdom and beyond. In addition, BT has carried signifi cant features on emerging issues in the life and ministry of the church. Baptists worldwide remain thankful for the excellent

coverage BT gave to important events and developments involving not only Baptists, but also Christians from other World Communions. Perhaps, the contribution of BT may best be appreciated in the context of a long line of periodicals emerging in the BUGB. These include Baptist Annual Register, the Baptist Magazine, Baptist Guardian, The Baptist, The Freeman and The Baptist Times and Freeman. When the last issue of BT rolled off the press, I couldn’t

help thinking that we are all the poorer because of this. Baptists worldwide have lost an invaluable ally in the search for an informed, intelligent and balanced voice on emerging issues and events, not only in the Baptist community, but in the worldwide Christian family. We wait with anticipation for the launch of the new BT website and appreciate the weekly email that is now being circulated in place of the hardcopy newspaper. I am grateful to the British Baptist woman who, for

many years, sent me a complimentary copy of each issue of BT while I served as a pastor in Jamaica. I will always remember BT!

Cover of the 8,412th edition and last issue of The Baptist Times, published on January 20, 2012

4 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE