Callam Names BWA Team for Dialogue with Pentecostals


B


aptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam has named the team that is to represent the BWA in the


international Baptist-Pentecostal dialogue that begins in Quito, Ecuador, in August.


In March of this year, the Executive Committee of the


BWA gave authorization to Callam to “gather a small team of competent theologians and church leaders reflecting the cultural diversity of the world Baptist family to undertake an international theological dialogue with Pentecostals.” Team members have been drawn from the six regions of


the BWA: Henry Mugabe from Zimbabwe (Africa); Miyon Chung from South Korea (Asia); Burchell Taylor from Jamaica (Caribbean); Nigel Wright from the United Kingdom (Europe); Richard Serrano of Venezuela (Latin America); and William Brackney from Canada and David Goatley from the United States (North America). Mugabe is a visiting professor of theology at the Richmond Theological Seminary in the United States and is former president of the Baptist Theological Seminary of Harare. Chung is professor at the Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology, is vice chair of the BWA Mission, Evangelism and Theological Reflection (METR) Advisory Committee, and is a member of the BWA Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity. Taylor is pastor of the Bethel Baptist Church in St. Andrew, teaches several courses at the United Theological College of the West Indies, and is a vice president of the BWA, among other BWA appointments. Wright is principal of Spurgeon’s College and Serrano is president of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Venezuela. Brackney is director of the Acadia Center for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies at Acadia Divinity


College and is a


member of the BWA Commission on Christian Ethics and the Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity, among other BWA appointments. Goatley is executive secretary-treasurer of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention and, among other BWA appointments, sits on the General Council and is chair of the METR Advisory Committee. Callam said that the “BWA is highly respectful of the leaders of all Christian World Communions and the families of churches they serve.” The BWA, he explained, “expects that the dialogue with the Pentecostals will offer an opportunity both to formulate clear statements on doctrinal agreements that Baptists share with Pentecostals,” and to “engage constructively around the issues on which we are not yet agreed.” This is the seventh theological dialogue in which the BWA


will be engaged. The first was with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches from 1973-1977 followed by talks with the Roman Catholic Church from 1984-1988; the Lutheran World Federation from 1986-1989; the Mennonite World Conference from 1989-1992; the Anglican Communion between 2000 and 2005; and the Roman Catholic Church (Second Round) from 2006-2010. This first round of the Baptist-Pentecostal Dialogue continues until 2015.


28 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE


In Memoriam


Else Øhrn,


president of the European Baptist Women’s Union from 1977-1982 and a vice president of the Baptist World Alliance Women’s Department during that same period, died on April 1. She was 90 years old. A children’s nurse, Øhrn was the daughter-in-law


of Arnold Øhrn, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance from 1948-1960. She was active in the Baptist women’s movement in her native Norway and was elected treasurer of the Women’s Union of Norway in 1973. She leaves husband, Jacob, children, grand- and great- grandchildren.


Funeral services were held April 10 at Porsgrunn Baptist Church.


H.S. Luaia,


former general secretary and mission secretary of the Baptist Church of Mizoram (BCM), died on April 8, Easter Sunday, in Serkawn, Mizoram state, India. He was 104 years old. Luaia, who was general secretary of BCM for 25 years, from 1946-1971, and mission secretary from 1971-1977, played a key role in the peacemaking process in Mizoram when insurgency swept throughout the state, helping to negotiate peace between Mizo nationalists and the Indian government.


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