News from the Executive Committee

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Actions and Decisions

The Executive Committee of the Baptist World Alliance®

accepted the recommendation that four groups be accepted into membership of the international organization. Three new member organizations are from the Caribbean.

The Connection of Haitian Baptist Churches for Integral Mission, established in 2004 with offi ces in Delmas, Port-au-Prince, is an association of 15,000 members in 58 churches. The Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti, founded in 1936, has 50,000 members in 488 churches with offi ces in Les Cayes, a town and seaport in southwestern Haiti. This brings to four the number of BWA member organizations in Haiti. The third Caribbean group is the Turks and Caicos Islands

Baptist Union. Formed 50 year ago, it is an association of 500 members in 13 churches. The fourth organization is from Africa. Established in 1996,

the Baptist Church of Congo brings to 11 the number of BWA member organizations in the vast country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The group comprises 2,850 members in 26 churches. There are now 227 BWA member organizations in 121

countries. These were among a number of decisions made by the

Executive Committee in meetings held at the BWA international offi ces near Washington, DC, in early March. BWA Executive Committee members approved the 21st

Baptist

World Congress logo. The logo, designed by a South African, will be used to brand and promote the international gathering that is to be held in Durban, South Africa, from July 22-26, 2015. Parrish Jacome was confi rmed as BWA regional secretary

for Latin America. Jacome, from Ecuador, was elected executive director of the Union of Baptist Churches in Latin America

Top: BWA President John Upton, 3rd left, presides at the Executive Committee meeting along with General Secretary Neville Callam, 2nd left. Parliamentarian Ross Clifford is at right and Julie Justus, member services manager and executive assistant to the general secretary, at left.

Right: BWA Director Fausto Vasconcelos, left, confers with Parrish Jacome, newly appointed BWA regional secretary for Latin America and executive director of the Union of Baptist Churches in Latin America

(UBLA) in April 2012. UBLA is one of six regional fellowships of the BWA. It was affi rmed that the offi cial report of the second round of

dialogue between the BWA and the Vatican is to be circulated among members of the BWA General Council for approval at its meeting in July in Jamaica. The dialogue took place between 2006 and 2010 and followed an earlier round of talks from 1984 to 1988. The BWA is to act on earlier proposals to enter into dialogue

with the worldwide Methodist community. The BWA is awaiting further developments for talks between itself and the Orthodox Church and international representatives of the Pentecostal movement, following earlier decisions by the Executive Committee and the General Council to do so. Two documents were unanimously approved by the Executive

Committee. Principles and Guidelines for Intra-Baptist Relationships, prepared by the Special Commission on Intra- Baptist Relations, and a second document that sought to clarify the status and relationships of regional secretaries within the BWA.

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