IN MEMORIAM

Victoria and Tasmania, editor of Sunday School Publications from 1949 to 1972, editor of the state Baptist monthly paper The Witness, from 1949 to 1957 and was involved in the Baptist Historical Society of Victoria. He was also president of the Baptist Union of Victoria and sat on the Victorian Foreign Mission and the Australian Baptist Missionary Society. Blackburn was a member of the

Geoffrey Blackburn, a vice president of the Baptist World Alliance from 1975- 1980, died in Melbourne, Australia, on July 13, at 99 years of age. In addition to being a former president, Blackburn was

BWA vice

a member of the General Council, the Executive Committee, the Commission on Evangelism and Mission and the Division of Evangelism and Education Committee. He attended 12 consecutive Baptist World Congresses beginning in 1955 in London, England, to the most recent congress in 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Blackburn was general secretary of

the Baptist Union of Australia (BUA) from 1949-1971 and BUA president between 1971 and 1975. He pastored the Syndal Baptist Church from 1972-1986. Early in his ministry, he pastored churches in Victoria

becoming a military chaplain

State before during

World War Two. Later, he served as youth director for the Baptist Unions of

Whitley College Council for 36 years, was president of the school from 1994- 1995 and was appointed a college fellow. In 2001, Whitley named its new library the Geoffrey Blackburn Library. He worked in the New Settlers ministry for three decades, preaching in Slavic churches and others of the settler’s group within the Baptist union. His memoir, Beyond Imagining, was published in 2001.

Blackburn held degrees and

diplomas from Whitley College when it was the Baptist College of Victoria, the Melbourne College of Divinity, the University of Melbourne and Fuller Seminary in California in the United States.

Order of Australia in 1998 “for services to

He was awarded the Medal of the the

Baptist church, in particular

through the Baptist Union of Australia and the Baptist World Alliance.” He is survived by wife, Jessie, and sons Keith and Alan.

Approximately 3,000 Baptist volunteers from Brazil and other countries joined efforts to proclaim that “Jesus Christ Transforms Lives” during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

outreach acted under the assumption that they may not have another opportunity to sow the seed of the Gospel to those who visited Brazil for the cup. Before the tournament began, volun- teers were trained, through videos on the

Internet and in one-day training sessions in their host city, to develop dialogue with Brazilians and people from other countries. Tourists and visitors were engaged at areas where they were likely to be in significant numbers such as at airports, bus stations, sightseeing spots, near hotels and stadiums, and in Fan Zones where there were public screenings of soccer matches. Free face painting was offered at booths, set up at strategic points. Volunteers, in

their respective fan gear, took this

opportunity to establish rapport with those in attendance at the various venues. Other volunteers handed out ball- shaped tracts and hand fans in which there was a concise presentation of the “Plan

of Salvation” in Portuguese and in the languages of other countries playing in the World Cup.

OCTOBER/DECEMBER 2014 29 Baptist

Funeral services were held at Syndal Church and

at Memorial Park on July 18. the Lilydale

Arnoldo Canclini, one of the foremost

church historians and historical theologians among Latin American Baptists, died on June 10, from complications associated with diabetes. He was 88 years old. Canclini

evangelical

served the Baptist and communities

outside of Argentina and was a respected member of the academic fraternity in his country.

He was a longtime pastor of Iglesia

Bautista del Centro; was, for many years, a professor at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital; director of the Editorial Department of the Baptist Publication Board and its successor; and a director of the journal Baptist Expositor and of the Tribune, an evangelical magazine.

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ARNOLDO CANCLINI

GEOFFREY BLACKBURN