GATHERING n BWA ANNUAL GATHERING n BWA ANNUAL GATHERING n BWA ANNUAL GATHERING n BWA ANNUAL GATHERING n BWA ANNUAL G Honorees

Human Rights Award Presented to Anti-human Trafficking Campaigner

During the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering

in Turkey, the 2014 Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights Award was presented to Ilie Coada of Moldova. Coada was described as “a man of wisdom, wit, courage and transparency” and “an inspiration to other human rights advocates, workers and activists.” He was recognized for his work as a Baptist pastor, church planter, human rights campaigner and anti- human trafficking advocate. Coada was lauded for leading an exemplary pioneering and sacrificial ministry, securing and protecting the rights and

Horace Russell, Outstanding Church Historian

Horace Russell was recognized during the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering in Izmir, Turkey. His involvement with the BWA began in 1955 at the Jubilee Congress in London in 1955. He gave a Bible Study at the Tokyo meetings in 1970. Russell has served on several BWA commissions including on the Commission on Baptist Heritage and Identity, the Commission on Baptists against Racism and the Academic and Theological Education Workgroup. He contributed the first chapter in Baptist Together in Christ, 1905-2005. A Jamaican, Russell was described “as one who bears the brunt

of being first in many things” and “esteemed as the foremost church historian in the English-speaking Caribbean.” He is regarded as “a Caribbean pioneer who helped shape a Caribbean vision and identity and was at the forefront of forging a Caribbean theology for more than 50 years.” Born to a Jamaican Baptist pastor and a schoolteacher, Russell was

freedom of children in Moldova. He “risked everything to follow the voice of the One who loves and saved him” and “saved countless children from the worst kinds of sex slavery despite threats on his life and person from sex traffickers.” Coada established the Bethania Christian Relief Association to manage and run projects; opened a shelter for vulnerable girls, many fresh out of orphanages, to reside and to continue their education; and founded a community and children’s center that offers after-school and summer programs, including tutoring, to more than 500 children. He began an elder-care program on the compound of the children’s center so elders can share meals and fellowship with children as adopted grandparents; instituted scholarships that enable girls at risk to attend vocational school and university; and developed greenhouses and other small businesses that offer employment to girls and women.

Above: BWA president John Upton presents the 2014 Lotz Human Rights Award to Ilie Coada.

one of the first Jamaican Baptists to graduate from Regent’s Park, Oxford University, in the United Kingdom, after completing studies at Calabar Theological College in Jamaica’s capital city Kingston, regarded as the first theological school for black Baptist pastors in the world. Upon returning to Jamaica in 1958, he became the first full time Jamaica-born tutor at Calabar. He served as general secretary of the Student Christian Movement, helping to establish branches in Haiti, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados; played a leading role in the establishment of the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) in the mid 1960s, an inter-denominational theological seminary for Christian churches in the Caribbean; and was appointed the third president of UTCWI in 1972, the first person of African descent to serve in this capacity. In 1976, he accepted a call as pastor for the historic East Queen Street

Baptist Church in downtown Kingston, which shares origins of Baptist witness in Jamaica. While at East Queen Street, he planted, organized or established the Edgewater, Waterford and Delacree Road Baptist Churches; was instrumental in establishing the Benevolent Fund used to give aid to the needy and the J. A. Leo-Rhynie Scholarship Fund to help students with tertiary level education; and chaired the Board of Governors of the Baptist-affiliated Calabar All Age School. A former vice president of the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU), Russell

helped pioneer gospel broadcast in Jamaica as producer of religious programing and broadcaster of religious programs with Radio Jamaica, and hosted the popular “Tell me Pastor” program on Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation from 1962-1964. He chaired the Broadcast Committee of the JBU from 1960-1965, helping to create the radio program “Christ for

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