CALLAM ENCOURAGES BAPTISTS TO

REMEMBER THOSE WHO LABOR IN THE FAITH

Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam encouraged Christians to specially remember Christians who work and live in vulnerable circumstances. The global Baptist leader, who was preaching at the worship service of First Baptist Church, Vancouver, in Canada, on July 3, made the case for Christian hospitality when he said, “we should treat our fellow Christians who are hungry or thirsty as we would treat Jesus.” Callam acknowledged that Christians are to respond to all those on the margins, whether or not they are of the Christian faith. “Does Jesus tell us to take care of those in need? Of course he does. Might today’s poor be reckoned as Jesus’ own presence incognito? Certainly! Throughout the Scriptures, and especially in the Gospel according to Luke, we see Jesus identifying with those who are consigned to the fringes of society, those who are pushed to the periphery.” However, there are Christians who are engaged in the

enterprise of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ who need the prayer and support of their fellow believers. The response to their needs should be the same as Christians would respond to the needs of the incarnated Jesus. “We should treat Christ’s messengers who are poorly

clothed as we would treat Jesus,” Callam emphasized. “We should treat those fellow Christians who are ill – perhaps

There are Christians engaged in

spreading the good news of Jesus Christ who need the prayer and support

of their fellow believers . . . the same as Christians would respond

to the needs of the incarnated Jesus.

undergoing some physical condition occasioned by the mission they are on – as we would treat Jesus.” Callam told the congregation that “Christians should be ready at all times to receive their fellow Christians who are messengers of the Gospel – that is, people who preach or teach the Gospel, people who bear witness to Christ – as we would receive Jesus himself.” The congregation offered prayer that, through unity and love, Baptists may become “light to those who live in spiritual darkness” and that they “break down the barriers that divide.”

Baptists from around the world were in Vancouver for

the BWA Annual Gathering from July 4-9. A number of participants worshiped and several preached at churches in the Vancouver area.

14 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE

Trisha Miller Manarin, Mission, Evangelism and Justice coordinator

BWA APPOINTS COORDINATOR FOR MISSION AND JUSTICE

Trisha Miller Manarin of Virginia, in the United States, has been appointed Baptist World Alliance coordinator for the Division on Mission, Evangelism and Justice (MEJ). The appointment was made by BWA General Secretary Neville Callam following a decision of the Executive Committee in Vancouver, Canada, in July that “the General Secretary will make interim staffing arrangements to continue the work of the BWA while the Executive Task Group does its work.” The task group is to take a comprehensive look at BWA staffing and submit its recommendations not later than 2018. The general secretary can fill vacancies that arise on an interim basis. Manarin commenced duties on September 1 upon the retirement

of Fausto Vasconcelos, who was director of the Division on Mission, Evangelism and Theological Reflection (METR) from April 2006 to August 31 this year. She will work on a part time basis. The MEJ division is a combination of METR and the division on

Freedom and Justice (F&J), which has remained vacant since 2014 after Director Raimundo Barreto resigned to take up a professorship at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, in the US. F&J was the newest BWA division after it was formally created in 2008. “Over the last nine years, I have gotten to know Trisha and her interest in, and commitment to, BWA and its mission,” Callam said. “Her intellectual gifts and her communications and organizational skills will prove helpful to the organization as we inaugurate the new Division on Mission, Evangelism and Justice.” Manarin is executive

coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and director of supervised ministry and an adjunct professor at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies. She is a member of the BWA Commission on Mission and was elected a vice president of the North American Baptist Fellowship (NABF) in July 2018 after previously being NABF recording secretary.

She holds a degree in music education and vocal performance from Samford University in Alabama, a master’s degree from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Seminary) in Pennsylvania and a doctoral degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, all in the United States. Her husband, Tim, sits on the BWA Commission on Human Rights Advocacy. They are the parents of two sons and a daughter.