Baptist World Alliance

The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is an international Baptist organization with an estimated 51 million people in 2023 with 253 member bodies in 130 countries and territories. A voluntary association of Baptist churches, the BWA accounts for about half the Baptists in the world. It is the 8th largest Christian communion.

Baptist World Alliance
Classification	Evangelical Christianity
Orientation	Baptist
General Secretary and CEO	Elijah M. Brown, since 2018
President	Tomás Mackey, since 2020
Region	130 countries
Headquarters	Falls Church, Virginia, U.S.
Origin	July 1905 London, United Kingdom
Congregations	176,000
Members	51,000,000
Official website	baptistworld.org

The BWA was founded in 1905 in London during an international congress of Baptist churches. Its headquarters are in Falls Church, Virginia, United States. It is led by General Secretary and CEO Elijah M. Brown and by President Tomás Mackey.

History

 

Believer's baptism of adult by immersion at Northolt Park Baptist Church, in Greater London, Baptist Union of Great Britain.

 

Show on the life of Jesus at Igreja da Cidade, affiliated to the Brazilian Baptist Convention, in São José dos Campos, Brazil, 2017.

 

Chümoukedima Ao Baptist Church building in Chümoukedima, affiliated with the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (India).

The roots of the Baptist World Alliance can be traced back to the seventeenth century when Baptist leader Thomas Grantham proposed the concept of a congregation of all Christians in the world that are "baptised according to the appointment of Christ."^[1] Similar proposals were put forward later such as the call of John Rippon in 1790 for a world meeting of Baptists "to consult the ecclesiastical good to the whole."^[1]

It was, however, only in 1904 when such congregation became a reality. John Newton Prestridge, editor of The Baptist Argus, at Louisville, Kentucky called for a world gathering of Baptists. John Howard Shakespeare, editor of The Baptist Times and Freeman, London, endorsed the proposal.^[2][3][4] In October 1904, the Baptist Union of Great Britain passed a resolution to invite a Congress to meet with them in 1905.^[5]At the Congress, a committee was formed, which proposed a Constitution for a World Alliance. The Baptist World Alliance was founded in London, during this first Baptist World Congress in July 1905.^[6][7][8][9]

The gathering was referred to as an "alliance" and not a council in order to establish the nature of the dialogue as a meeting. This means that the body wields no authority over participating churches or national Baptist unions, serving only as a forum for collaboration.^[10]

In 2020, the Argentine Pastor Tomás Mackey succeeded South African Pastor Paul Msiza as BWA President.^[11]

Statistics

According to a denomination census released in 2023, the BWA has 253 participating Baptist fellowships in 130 countries, with 176,000 churches and 51,000,000 baptized members.^[12] These statistics are not fully representative, however, since some churches in the United States have dual or triple national Baptist affiliation, causing a church and its members to be counted by more than one Baptist denomination. ^[13][14]

Beliefs

The Alliance has a Baptist confession of faith.^[15]

Organisational structure

The Alliance is divided into six regional or geographical fellowships: North American Baptist Fellowship, Caribbean Baptist Fellowship, Latin American Baptist Union, European Baptist Federation, Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, and All-Africa Baptist Fellowship.^[16] Each regional fellowship is served by an Executive Secretary.

List of presidents

Name	Term	Country
John Clifford	1905–1911	UK
Robert Stuart MacArthur	1911–1923	USA
Edgar Young Mullins	1923–1928	USA
John MacNeill	1928–1934	Canada
George Washington Truett	1934–1939	USA
James Henry Rushbrooke	1939–1947	UK
Charles Oscar Johnson	1947–1950	USA
Fred Townley Lord	1950–1955	UK
Theodore Floyd Adams	1955–1960	USA
Joao Filson Soren	1960–1965	Brasil
William Tolbert	1965–1970	Liberia
Carney Hargroves	1970–1975	USA
David Wong [de]	1975–1980	Hong Kong
Duke Kimbrough McCall	1980–1985	USA
Noel Vose	1985–1990	Australia
Knud Wümpelmann [de]	1990–1995	Denmark
Nilson do Amaral Fanini	1995–2000	Brasil
Billy Kim	2000–2005	South Korea
David Coffey	2005–2010	UK
John Upton	2010–2015	USA
Paul Mzisa	2015–2020	South Africa
Tomás Mackey	2020–	Argentina

Baptist World Congress

Baptist World Congresses have been held every few years since 1905.^{[9][17][18][19]}

No.	Year	City	Country
1.	1905	London	GBR
2.	1911	Philadelphia	USA
3.	1923	Stockholm	SWE
4.	1928	Toronto	CAN
5.	1934	Berlin	DEU
6.	1939	Atlanta	USA
7.	1947	Copenhagen	DNK
8.	1950	Cleveland	USA
9.	1955	London	GBR
10.	1960	Rio de Janeiro	BRA
11.	1965	Miami Beach	USA
12.	1970	Tokyo	JPN
13.	1975	Stockholm	SWE
14.	1980	Toronto	CAN
15.	1985	Los Angeles	USA
16.	1990	Seoul	KOR
17.	1995	Buenos Aires	ARG
18.	2000	Melbourne	AUS
19.	2005	Birmingham	GBR
20.	2010	Honolulu	USA
21.	2015	Durban	ZAF
22.	2021 (Online)	Online	N/A
23.	2025	Brisbane	AUS

Affiliated organizations

BWAid

BWAid is the Alliance’s humanitarian organization.^[20]

BFAD

BWA Forum for Aid and Development (BFAD) brings together 30 Baptist humanitarian agencies.^[21]

Global Baptist Mission Network

The Global Baptist Mission Network has 23 member mission organizations. ^[22][23]

Ecumenical relations

The Baptist World Alliance is involved in ecumenical dialogues, including with the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council. ^[24] One series of International Conversations between the BWA and the Catholic Church took place from between 1984 and 1988 moderated by the Reverend Dr David T. Shannon, sometime President of Andover Newton Theological School, and the Most Reverend Bede Heather, Bishop of Parramatta.^[25] While this dialogue produced the report called Summons to Witness to Christ in Today's World, the second phase did not push through because of opposition from within the Baptist World Alliance itself.^[26] Negotiations continued, however, so that a series of consultations transpired from 2000 to 2003. During this period the Baptists and Catholics discussed important doctrines that divide these denominations.^[26] These second series of conversations resulted in formal meetings between 2006 and 2010. The current Co-Moderators are Paul Fiddes, Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford and formerly Principal of Regent's Park College, Oxford, and Arthur J. Serratelli, Bishop of Paterson.^[27]

Controversies

In 2004, the Southern Baptist Convention of the United States left the BWA after it had accused then-BWA President Kim of adopting a liberal theology because of his support for the exercise of pastoral ministry of women, its alleged anti-Americanism, and because member denominations including the American Baptist Churches USA allow the autonomy of its churches to perform same sex marriages.^[28][29] Alliance Secretary General Denton Lotz replied that the Alliance was not liberal, but evangelical conservative, that the American Baptist Churches USA in its constitution believed only in marriage between a man and a woman and that any accusations of anti-Americanism had resulted from his visits to Fidel Castro in Cuba for the import of Bibles and the expansion of the freedom of belief.^[30][31] The SBC also claimed the Alliance refused to discuss abortion stances.^[32] In a General Council Resolution, the Alliance lamented the widespread resort to abortion but acknowledges the diversity of views and calls on Baptists to honor each individuals freedom of conscience.^[33] In 2005, two state denomination members of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Baptist General Convention of Texas, applied for membership in the Alliance and were admitted.^[34]

See also

• List of Baptist confessions
• List of Baptist World Alliance National Fellowships
• World Evangelical Alliance
• Believers' Church

References

1. Williams, Michael; Shurden, Walter (2008). Turning Points in Baptist History: A Festschrift in Honor of Harry Leon McBeth. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0881461350.
2. Lord, Townley F. (2007). Baptist World Fellowship: A Short History Of The Baptist World Alliance. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0-548-44182-4.
3. Wardin, Albert W., ed. (1995). Baptists Around the World: A Comprehensive Handbook. Broadman & Holman. ISBN 0-8054-1076-7.
4. Leornard, Bill J. (1994). Dictionary of Baptists in America. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 0-8308-1447-7.
5. Erich Geldbach, Baptists Worldwide: Origins, Expansions, Emerging Realities, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2022, p. 139
6. Johnson, Robert E. (2010). A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches. UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 238.
7. Brackney, William H. (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Baptists. USA: Scarecrow Press. p. 59.
8. Melton, J. Gordon; Baumann, Martin (2010). Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices. USA: ABC-CLIO. p. 297.
9. Pierard, Richard V. (1 October 2010). "The Baptist World Congress of 1905 and the Emergence of Black American Baptists on the International Scene". Baptist Quarterly. 43 (8): 494–505. doi:10.1179/bqu.2010.43.8.004. ISSN 0005-576X. S2CID 162270005.
10. Johnson, Robert (2010). A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-52187781-7.
11. Baptist World Alliance, Tomás Mackey Installed as Next BWA President, baptistworld.org, USA, 23 July 2020
12. Baptist World Alliance, Members, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved May 5, 2023
13. Robert E. Johnson, A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2010, p. 361
14. Paul Finkelman, Cary D. Wintz, Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century Five-volume Set, Oxford University Press, USA, 2009, p. 193
15. Baptist World Alliance, Beliefs, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved November 5, 2022
16. Baptist World Alliance, Regional Fellowships, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved November 5, 2022
17. McKinney, Blake (March 2018). ""One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism" in the Land of ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer: The Fifth Baptist World Congress (Berlin, 1934)". Church History. 87 (1): 122–148. doi:10.1017/S0009640718000823. ISSN 0009-6407. S2CID 165401185.
18. Deweese, Charles W. (1 January 2008). "E. Y. Mullins and Baptist World Congresses". Baptist History and Heritage. 43 (1): 4. ISSN 0005-5719.
19. "Gathering Global Baptists for More than 100 Years". Baptist World Alliance Website. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
20. Baptist World Alliance, BWAid, Relief & Community Development, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved June 8, 2021
21. Baptist World Alliance, BWAid, Relief & Community Development, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved June 8, 2021
22. Ken Camp and Eric Black, BWA launches Global Baptist Mission Network, baptiststandard.com, USA, July 5, 2023
23. Baptist World Alliance, Global Baptist Mission Network, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved May 5, 2023
24. Geoffrey Wainwright, Paul McPartlan, The Oxford Handbook of Ecumenical Studies, Oxford University Press, UK, 2021, p. 175
25. Angelo Maffeis, Ecumenical Dialogue, Liturgical Press, USA, 2005, p. 44-45
26. Cassidy, Edward (2005). Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue: Unitatis Redintegratio, Nostra Aetate. New York: Paulist Press. pp. 68. ISBN 0809143380.
27. "Baptist—Roman Catholic International Conversations". Centro Pro Unione. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
28. Pauline J. Chang, Southern Baptists Break Century-Old Relationship with Baptist World Alliance, christianpost.com, USA, June 15, 2004
29. Don Hinkle, SBC severs ties with BWA as theological concerns remain, baptistpress.com, USA, 15 June 2004
30. Ted Olsen, Southern Baptists No Longer In, Nor Of, World Alliance, christianitytoday.com, USA, 1 June 2004
31. Alan Cooperman, Southern Baptists Vote To Leave World Alliance, washingtonpost.com, USA, 16 June 2004
32. "Committee votes to withdraw from Baptist World Alliance". 17 February 2004.
33. "Search results for "Abortion" | Baptist World Alliance".
34. Robert Dilday, Marv Knox, Part of the family: Virginia is elected new BWA member, baptistnews.com, USA, 7 August 2005

External links

• Official website