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A VOICE fOr ECumEnICAl And IntErfAIth dIAlOguE

tAblE Of COntEntsecUMeNicAl ideAs …………………………………………… pAge 4 ecUMeNisM ANd MissioNs ………………………………… pAge 8A grAil of ecUMeNisM …………………………………… pAge 10 COVER: Radha and her husband Poona are among the displaced in Mirpurkhas district, Sindh Province of Pakistan where CWS is providing food, shelter and medical care for flood survivors. Learn more about Church World Service’s work in Cheryl Dudley’s article, “In Times of Outrageous Need—Ecumenism.” Photograph by Donna Fernandes, Church World Service.

ABOVE: At closing worship of 2011 Summer Communities of Service orientation participants lit candles as they offered prayers for themselves, the other group members and the ministries they were committing to for the summer. Pictured is Kristen Kniepkamp, UCC volunteer who spent her summer at Alliance partner congregation Metro Baptist Church in New York City working with inner-city children.

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HoNoriNg joHN ewiNg roberTs jeANeTTe HolT

As I look back over the 25 years of the Alliance of Baptists, I am struck by how the organization has often been blessed and shaped by the particular passions and gifts of those elected to lead. A prime example is John Ewing Roberts, who has served as convocation chair, vice president and president. He

is also part of that original group we call our founders.

Had it not been for the Alliance, I might never have met John and Marylynn Roberts—though we live no more than 35 miles apart in the relatively small state of Maryland. But out of the chaos of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Alliance of Baptists was born. In those earliest years, the Alliance had many state and regional chapters where we met for fellowship, encouragement and strategizing. It was in the Northeast Alliance Chapter that I met the Robertses.

John, a Kentucky native, is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Yale University. He served as pastor of Woodbrook Baptist Church in Baltimore for more than thirty years and brought to that congregation his love of history—both secular and religious, of classical languages and religious art. Marylynn, also a Kentucky native, is a gifted musician, and the two of them are delightful

companions—whether for a concert, lecture, travel or simply an informal evening of conversation and humor.

The particular passion John brought to the Alliance was his commitment to Jewish-Christian dialogue. His involvement with the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore provided the Alliance with resources and direction in our journey to examine what actions the Alliance might take regarding Jewish-Christian relations. This culminated in a convocation focusing on the topic. During that meeting, the Alliance adopted our Statement on Jewish-Christian Relations, and our final worship service at the meeting was held at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C—the first time a Protestant group was allowed to hold such a gathering at the museum.

One aspect of the Statement was a commitment by the Alliance “to educate ourselves on the history of Jews and Christians.” With John’s leadership, the Alliance sponsored a trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories in the summer of 2000. Twenty of us

participated—from Florida, New York, Louisiana, North Carolina and Maryland—and I was delighted to be a part of the group. I have said many times since this trip changed my life in profound ways: it changed the way I read the Bible and the way I read the newspaper. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land, to question and to learn from John Roberts and the other scholars who met with us there.

In an article in the Alliance newsletter, connections, John was quoted, saying, “The Alliance is always a challenge. It requires that you be alert and ready.” Time and time again, he has provided the insight and guidance to meet that challenge.

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ThE STATEmEnT REAdS, in pART: As the Alliance of Baptists, institu-tionally, and as individual members and churches, we:

● Affirm the teaching of the Christian Scriptures that God has not rejected the community of Israel, God’s covenant people (Romans 11:1-2), since the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29);

● Renounce interpretations of Scripture which foster religious stereotyping and prejudice against the Jewish people and their faith;

● Seek genuine dialogue with the broader Jewish community, a dialogue built on mutual respect and the integrity of each others’ faith;

● Lift our voices quickly and boldly against all expressions of anti-Semitism; ● Educate ourselves and others on the history of Jewish-Christian relations from

the first century to the present, so as to understand our present by learning from our past; and

● Commit ourselves to rigorous consideration of appropriate forms of Christian witness for our time.

Adopted March 4, 1995 | Vienna, Virginia | Updated in 2003

Jeanette Holt retired in 2007 after more than 18 years as associate director of the Alliance

of Baptists. Prior to that she worked at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. She is a member of University Baptist Church in College Park, Md., where she teaches Sunday School, sings in the choir and serves as church moderator.

Participants in the early dialogue sessions that led to the ecumenical partnership between the Alliance and United Church of Christ, included, from left, Timothy Downs, UCC, Jim Todhunter, UCC, John Ewing Roberts, Alliance, Joann Davis, Alliance, Rollin Russell, UCC, John Thomas, UCC, Jeanette Holt, Alliance, Martha Barr, Alliance, John Deckenback, UCC, Paul Sadler, UCC, Stan Hastey, Alliance.

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tAblE Of COntEntsecUMeNicAl ideAs …………………………………………… pAge 4 ecUMeNisM ANd MissioNs ………………………………… pAge 8A grAil of ecUMeNisM …………………………………… pAge 10

iN TiMes of oUTrAgeoUs Need—ecUMeNisM ……… pAge 12eMbodyiNg ecUMeNisM …………………………………… pAge 14 UNiTy ANd diversiTy ……………………………………… pAge 16 THe fUTUre of ecUMeNisM ……………………………… pAge 18 coNgregATioNAl giviNg ………………………………… pAge 20

3COVER: Radha and her husband Poona are among the displaced in Mirpurkhas district, Sindh Province of Pakistan where CWS is providing food, shelter and medical care for flood survivors. Learn more about Church World Service’s work in Cheryl Dudley’s article, “In Times of Outrageous Need—Ecumenism.” Photograph by Donna Fernandes, Church World Service.

ABOVE: At closing worship of 2011 Summer Communities of Service orientation participants lit candles as they offered prayers for themselves, the other group members and the ministries they were committing to for the summer. Pictured is Kristen Kniepkamp, UCC volunteer who spent her summer at Alliance partner congregation Metro Baptist Church in New York City working with inner-city children.

THe AlliANce of bApTisTs is A growiNg MoveMeNT of progressive cHrisTiANs—iNdividUAls ANd coNgregATioNs—seekiNg To respoNd To THe coNTiNUiNg cAll of god iN A rApidly cHANgiNg world.

voices is pUblisHed by AlliANce of bApTisTs: 3939 lAvisTA roAd, e-122 ATlANTA, georgiA 30084 866.745.7609 www.allianceofbaptists.orgTo sUbscribe, sUbMiT AN ArTicle ideA, or plAce AN AdverTiseMeNT, eMAil MAry@AlliANceofbApTisTs.org

visioN/ediTor | MAry ANdreollidesigN | TobiAs beckercopy ediTors | relMA HArgUs, HeATH gArdNerediToriAl boArd | leAdersHip TeAM, relMA HArgUs

© 2011, Alliance of baptists

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cArole colliNs, director of finance

bob beckerlecArol blyTHe, presidentjoHN boydANiTA brAdsHAw d.H. clArkMANdy eNglANd cole, vice president

jeANeTTA coTMANcrAig dAvis-joHNsoNAMy jAcks deANANNe gArNercArl gregg, secretarysTepHANie l. HAMilToN lee Hillcliff joHNsoN

leAH loNsbUrydAvid MAsseNgill lAUrA MAyoNed AllyN pArker keN rAMsey

pAUl ricHArdsoN, treasurersHeilA sHoles-rosskATHy sTAyToN g.j. TArAzibrooks wicker, past presidentANgelA yArber

pAUlA clAyToN deMpsey,minister for partnership relations

ECumEnICAl IdEAs—thAt’s WhAt WE’rE AbOutpAT pArisH

4ABOVE: Midiam Lobaina Gamez, right, general director of the Christian Women’s Network in Cuba and dear friend of Alliance member Sylvia Campbell. Carroll Baltimore, left, is president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Carroll visited Cuba in January 2011 with an Alliance delegation to explore the possibility of partnership with congregations in the Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba. Midiam’s group is a partnership ministry of Alliance partner congregation Ravensworth Baptist Church in Annandale, Va.

Anyone reading the Alliance’s August 2011 Prayers for the People posting would likely take note that it was not a typical Baptist prayer request. “We pray for hearts full of hope for our Muslim neighbors who are fasting during Ramadan as an act of devotion, for ourselves that we become more aware of our Muslim

neighbors and for our relationship as Muslims and Christians sharing community.”

It is, however, a typical prayer request for the Alliance of Baptists. From the earliest conceptual stages, the Alliance has been intentionally ecumenical and interfaith.

When a small band of dissident Southern Baptists gathered in 1986 to chart a new course, one of their earliest decisions was to craft a covenant statement that encapsulated what it means to be truly Baptist.

One of the seven points in that covenant emphasized a commitment to “the larger body of Jesus Christ, expressed in various Christian traditions,” and the companion mission statement includes an intention to “foster relationships within the Alliance and with other people of faith.” Mahan Siler, one of the authors, said this “stance of inclusion” has guided the Alliance as it has evolved its relationships with “gays, Jews, creation, and later Muslims.” He sees these “enlargements of the circle” being “grounded in a vision of the gospel as good news about just relationships.”

David Waugh remembers that as he chaired the Alliance’s interfaith committee in the 1990s, the committee’s understanding “was that our commitment to the larger body of Christ was to provide examples and tools as to how members of Christian faith traditions are to be brothers and sisters to those who do not embrace our faith but who do live in community with us. That often calls for confession, forgiveness and supportive actions of community.”

Now, in late 2011, ecumenism and interfaith activities permeate Alliance life. You can see it as summer interns serve at the Back Bay

Mission in Biloxi, Miss., and WellSpring in Centreville, Va. You can see it in Monroe, La., at a Muslim-Jewish-Baptist service on September 11 at Northminster Church. You can

ECumEnICAl IdEAs—thAt’s WhAt WE’rE AbOutpAT pArisH

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see it at an Alliance board meeting, where Jeanetta Cotman serves as a representative from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Jeanetta said serving on the Alliance board seemed a natural outgrowth of serving on her church’s Council on Christian Unity. “Ecumenical ideas—that’s what we [the Council] are about,” she said. “We believe everyone is welcome to the table.”

“Ecumenical ideas—that’s what we are about” also applies to the Alliance.

The organization’s model of doing missions is an example. Early on, Alliance members decided on a new mission model: the organization would not send missionaries to convert people to its own practices, nor would it send missionaries to establish new posts and new projects. Instead, it would find existing ministries—both Baptist and interfaith—needing assistance. That assistance would be respectful, not dominating.

The 2011 Bridges of Hope brochure describes the Alliance way of doing mission this way: “We empower our mission partners to do their work on their terms, not ours … We do not own the mission project … We respect and value persons of other faiths, their spirituality and wisdom.”

EcumEnical partnErshipsThe Alliance has forged other types of partnerships with various Baptist and other Christian groups, most notably joining the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA in 2000. The NCCC, noted Stan Hastey, then the Alliance executive director, is our nation’s flagship ecumenical body, and as such it “provided the Alliance with an institutional framework in which to find our place in the larger Christian community.” Alliance involvement in the annual NCC Ecumenical Advocacy Days is one such place we stand.

The Rev. Charles Adams, president of the PNBC and keynote speaker at the Alliance’s 1990 convocation, suggested the Alliance begin a dialogue with his group. Richard Groves was invited to bring greetings from the Alliance to the PNBC’s meeting in Pittsburgh the next year. He went there with the intention of inviting members of the PNBC to a dialogue that would yield some cooperative efforts. Arriving at the meeting still unsure about what to say, it occurred to him that he could read from a statement on slavery and racism adopted at the 1990 Alliance convocation. The statement acknowledged not only Southern Baptists’ history with slavery and racism but also the “continuing pattern” of racism, and it apologized for both.Though he knew adopting the statement had been a significant act, Richard felt more was needed. In his president’s address to the Alliance the next spring, he explained, “I have a feeling that apologies must be made to real people, face to face. That is what I wanted to do in Pittsburgh.”

When he read the statement to the PNBC delegates, it received a standing ovation. Richard described that experience: “They were willing to wait, and had to wait 150 years to hear a white Baptist of the South say, ‘I’m sorry.’ But when they finally heard the words, they were quick to say, ‘You’re forgiven.’”

ABOVE: Midiam Lobaina Gamez, right, general director of the Christian Women’s Network in Cuba and dear friend of Alliance member Sylvia Campbell. Carroll Baltimore, left, is president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. Carroll visited Cuba in January 2011 with an Alliance delegation to explore the possibility of partnership with congregations in the Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba. Midiam’s group is a partnership ministry of Alliance partner congregation Ravensworth Baptist Church in Annandale, Va.

Pat Parish is a journalist who teaches reporting and advises student media at LSU. She is a member of Alliance partner congregation Broadmoor Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La. Pat and her husband, Dick, have two daughters, two sons-in-law and four grandchildren. LEFT: Pat and one of her granddaughters, Lauren White.

BELOw: From left: Thelma Chambers-Young, Progressive National Baptist Convention, bishop Thomas Hoyt Jr., Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and Sylvia Campbell, Alliance of Baptists, share a quiet moment of friendship on the streets of Bethlehem. As members of a delegation of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, they traveled across the Middle East from Beirut to Cairo to Bethlehem to Jerusalem seeking peace and justice in the region. The trip coincided with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

In his speech to the Alliance, Richard continued, “Make no mistake, simply declaring our oneness in Christ will not, in itself, make everything right. There are barriers which must be cleared away, old wounds which must be healed one at a time. It will not always be easy. But it will be rewarding, and it is right.”

intErfaith rElationshipsThe idea of repenting also played out within other Alliance relationships. In the early 1990s, various Alliance members were participating in dialogues and activities with Jewish and Islamic groups. David Waugh was serving as co-chair of an interfaith dialogue in New York City that included several branches of Judaism, multiple Christian expressions and three Islamic faith communities. In Monroe, La., Northminster Church held services for years in Temple B’nai Israel and built close relationships with the synagogue members that still continue. In the Baltimore area, John Roberts and Woodbrook Baptist Church were participating in conversations with Jewish groups.

As Alliance members built relationships with people of other faiths, they began to see the need for a statement on Christian-Jewish relations. A statement repenting of past attitudes—including “a theology which has valued conversion over dialogue”—and that called for “a dialogue built on mutual respect and the integrity of each other’s faith,” was adopted at the 1995 convocation. At the convocation’s Sunday morning service at Vienna Baptist Church, Welton Gaddy preached. A highlight, he remembers, “was a dancer from Temple B’Nai Israel and a dancer from Northminster opening the scrolls of the Torah and the scriptures of Christians and with creative movement bringing the 6

scriptural traditions together, just before a celebration of communion.” That afternoon, an Alliance service at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum became the first of its kind there. “We read the statement of repentance and celebrated a new day of relationships between the Alliance of Baptists and Jews,” Welton said.

In 2003, members at the convocation adopted a revised version of the 1995 Jewish statement and adopted a similar statement on Muslim-Christian relations. The issue of Muslim relations had become more pressing after September 11, 2001, a time when Southern Baptist leaders issued statements connecting Islam with demons, terrorists and evil. The Alliance statement apologized for prejudices and “a theology which does not acknowledge the vibrancy, vitality, and differences of the Muslim faith.”

Welton, a former Alliance president and current president of the Interfaith Alliance, recalls representing both Alliance groups on a panel at a meeting of Baptists organized by Jimmy Allen to talk about other religions. “One of my major emphases was the distinction between relating to and cooperating with people of other faiths and seeking to proselytize them,” Welton said. “I read a letter from an Alliance of Baptists member on the mission field, pleading for help from Baptists in resolving tensions with Muslims in foreign lands—tensions increased because of missionary efforts at proselytization.”

Sharing and dialogue with the Jewish and Muslim communities have continued. In 2009, Stan helped organize a formal dialogue between Muslims and various Baptist groups, including American Baptists and the PNBC. Breakout sessions at Alliance convocations allow for, in David Waugh’s words, “listening to our faith neighbors and modeling intentional dialogues.” In Monroe, La., Northminster Church and Temple B’Nai Israel have shared many worship services, including a Holocaust Remembrance service, and Welton, Northminster’s pastor for preaching, worked with the temple’s rabbi to counter the mandatory morning prayers in a public school. John Roberts has sponsored trips to the Middle East focusing on interfaith relations and how American Christians relate to the three Abrahamic faith groups there.

In all these ways and more, Alliance members are carrying out the founders’ vision of the “gospel as good news about just relationships.” 7

RiGhT: Visits with tobacco workers in migrant camps near Dudley, N.C., and a presentation by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee about the importance of the faith community to migrant workers were the focus of this ecumenical delegation from the Justice & Advocacy Commission of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. National Farm Worker Ministry, one of our mission partners, organized the event that included Presbyterians, United Methodists and Alliance of Baptists. From left: Michael Szpak, Rick Goodman, Carol Blythe-Goodman, David Wildman, John Hill, Virginia Nesmith, Ryan Nilsen and David Anderson.

“Where are y’all from?” asked the tow-headed seventh grader trudging beside me across the town’s railroad tracks. The rake we had just used to weed a community flower bed dragged noisily along the cracked pavement behind him.

“Well… I’m from Maryland; Claire up there is from Virginia"—I gestured toward the other kids walking ahead of us—“and Dora and

Jake actually came from Missouri. The Methodist church here in town is helping, too. So…we’re from all over, I guess.”

Upon hearing this litany of response, a look of perplexity overtook the boy: “But…what are you all doing in Belington? We’re nobody; no one’s ever heard of us. Why do you care?”

The boy’s pointed question stopped me on the tracks. Belington, a tiny town of 2,000 in the hills of Barbour County, West Virginia, was once a significant stop on the map of industry, a vital railroad center for coal mining and lumber manufacturing. By the 1950’s, however, the closure of these industries triggered a mass exodus of young people to adjoining states. The once-thriving town now has many deserted Main Street storefronts and few opportunities for employment.

Back in the mid-1990s, however, Belington’s quiet dilemma intersected a crescendoing call felt by Alliance congregation Broadview Baptist in Maryland. Broadview pastor Terry

Minchow-Proffitt had noticed the lack of mission opportunities for families to participate in together and encouraged Broadview’s church secretary, Sandra Gardner, to explore any possibilities for partnership back in her hometown of Belington. Gardner quickly found old friends from Belington’s Westside United Methodist Church and Calvary Southern Baptist Church eager to help make a trip happen. Within weeks, housing was secured at an American Baptist college in the neighboring town

ECumEnIsm And mIssIOnsAbby THorNToN

Abby Thornton is pastor of Alliance partner congregation Broadneck Baptist Church in Annapolis, Maryland. A graduate of the University of Virginia and Duke Divinity School, Abby has previously served four congregations in North Carolina and Virginia. She loves life on the Chesapeake Bay, frequenting coffee shops, working as a curriculum writer across several denominations, and venturing with her flock into the wild world of being God’s people in their community.

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of Philippi, and a multi-generational team of 26 journeyed west to conduct a children’s camp in a park and do home repairs and yard work.

Since that initial trip, countless others have gotten on board with Broadview’s initial vision of intergenerational, interdenominational involvement lived out in long-term partnership with a community. In 1999, Alliance congregation Broadneck Baptist of Annapolis, Maryland, joined the trip for the first time. When Minchow-Proffitt moved to the St. Louis area in 2002, his new congregation at Delmar Baptist was eager to participate. As the partnership completed its 14th year in 2011, an astonishing 101 participants from six congregations—Broadview, Broadneck, Delmar, Alliance congregation Northminster Baptist in Richmond, Va., Chestnut Grove Baptist in Earlysville, Va., and St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Purceville, Va., spent the week engaged in more than a dozen construction projects and leading a music and arts camp for children. The group remains radically intergenerational, with participants from ages 2 to 72—youth and adults swing hammers and climb ladders, while other adults and children from the churches and community engage creative opportunities ranging from weaving to drum circles to photography classes, from creating their own silk-screen shirts bearing original logos to crafting a mobile out of hundreds of paper cranes to be hung in the local elementary school. This summer, the worlds of children and construction even collided: For the first time, the oldest group at Music and Arts Camp hit the streets of their town to participate in creative work through daily service learning projects, weeding and mulching and painting to enhance the beauty of Belington’s landscape.

Which brings us back to the middle-schooler walking beside me after our first day of service-learning, covered in mulch and full of questions. His inquiry remains valid: Why bother? Why give our time and resources here year after year when there are so many places of need? Why give up a week of summer vacation to sweat and serve in this small West Virginia town? Why this trip’s strange power to forge relationships across lines of location, denomination and age —relationships so strong that participants return every year and pick back up like they’ve been together all along? After all, rates of poverty and unemployment remain high in Belington and families continue to struggle. How could any of this matter?

Yet amidst long-settled dust, scattered glimmers of hope make their way to the surface: the hand carved “Belington” sign placed on an abandoned corner by a 16-year-old participant a few years back, the focal point of what has been transformed by the community into a town square. The Civic Center, once rarely used because of its disrepair, now radiant with freshly painted sky-blue bleachers—one side redone by our group, the other side by the community. The women of Westside United Methodist Church preparing meals tirelessly for 150 people each day, playing their own part in the work of transformation. The young man, only two years of age fourteen years ago when he

attended children’s camp for the first time, working now as one of the teachers in the camp. The Belington Revitalization Committee now working year-round to bring improvements and businesses to the town. The tops of gorgeous green hills lined by a power company this summer with energy-efficient wind turbines, signs of more potential new life yet to come.

I looked up at the turbines, back at the flower beds, and down into a pair of remarkably old-souled eyes waiting for my response. “We’re here,” I said finally, “because we want to be here. There is somebody here—you’re here. Bruce is here…and Kasey…and Kelsey.” I spoke names I hadn’t known before, but that I now know as the young faces of Belington. “We care about this place—that’s all. That’s why we come back every year, just to be with you.” Hearing this, he kicked the ground with the toe of his sneaker in the way that only a 13-year-old can. The shake of his head made it very apparent that he wasn’t sure he believed me. Yet as we climbed a hill, he seemed unable to hide the fact that, somewhere in his head, wheels were turning.

If those wheels take a while to turn, that’s okay. Perhaps next year when our churches come back, we’ll find him where his thoughts continued to roll, and pick up the conversation once again.

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LEFT: Photo of the Mshvidobis grail from 1946, presumably taken after its arrival in the United States in the possession of Louie D. Newton, who received it from Russian Baptists after celebrating Eucharist at the Moscow Central Baptist Church, Aug. 8, 1946. Photographer unknown.

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thE grAIl Of PEACE jereMy foUTz

When we read about the repatriation of physical artifacts, as thoughtful outsiders, we may nod and say to ourselves, “Ah, good,” or in our more patronizing moments, “Well, isn’t that so nice for them!” There it stops and on to the next event, need, or thing clamoring for our attention. However, this particular repatriation is more than that. In fact, as introspective and empathetic Christians, we should break

out of our common frame of reference and dwell on this event beyond the passing—even if heartfelt!—routine of information consumption.

The return of the Grail of Peace (მშვიდობის გრაალი, or mshvidobis graali  ) to the Georgian Baptist community represents the return of an artifact of an idealized past for some, a symbol of Georgian Baptist unity for others, and a symbolic act of broader Christian unity for Georgian Baptists and for those of us beyond Georgia’s physical borders.

For those unfamiliar with the nation of Georgia—its language, history, religions, cultures, music, visual arts, cuisine, architecture, people—this short article cannot provide all the context and color needed to fully empathize with modern Georgians.1 However, some central points that relate to our own situations may help one understand the value of meditating on the Georgian situation and this repatriation event.

Unfortunately, most of us can identify with loss. From Georgia’s beginnings as a nation nearly 2,000 years ago and continuing through the more recent tsarist and Soviet eras, the group of people we call Georgians (ქართლი, or kartli) endured a nearly continuous state of

1 for more detailed information, i would highly recommend ronald suny’s books, Revenge of the Past and Making of the Georgian Nation as well as The Ghost of Freedom by richard King. for an overview focusing on music, history, and religion, i might humbly suggest my thesis, freely available on the Drum website of university of maryland (http://bit.ly/p8ziki).

siege or attack. Some was the sad state of affairs for the time, but in the last 300 years they have endured theft and/or destruction that included people, homes, churches, artistic and religious expression, crops, livestock, religious symbols, and even governments. In 1868, Georgia was a part of the Russian Empire and Georgians felt tremendous pressure from the Russian government to adopt elements of Russian culture, ”russification.” The increasing effects of russification spread to the Georgian Orthodox Church, Georgian Baptist Church, and other Georgian manifestations of Christianity in restrictions placed on language, music, religious education and even worship.

For some Georgian Baptists, the Grail acts as a symbol of a “purer” time and experience, and its return helps many connect with their past as well as spark hope for the future. One member of the community, Nino Khutsishvili, emphasized the historical nature of the Grail and its importance as a Eucharistic symbol and artifact of the first Baptists in Georgia—and to their desire and work toward peace.2 While certainly related to a general sense of nostalgia we all feel from time to time, it is of a deeper type because of Georgia’s longstanding—many Georgians say “'genetic'”—historical connection with Christianity, which dates to the fourth century CE. The Grail, then, represents an aspect of their identity that is fundamental, something precious that was lost but now found—an experience I dearly hope many of us have experienced at some point in our lives.

Most of us can recognize that the people closest to us or most like us are the ones who can hurt us the most. Simply

2 this peacemaking characteristic is somewhat supported by at least one newspaper article from the early twentieth century (ca. 1902) found in the national archive of Georgia in tbilisi.

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put, the similarities or shared experiences lead us to greater engagement and deeper connection, and when the differences—or conflicts—do occur, the result is far more volatile than it would be with complete “strangers.” Over the last 2,000 years, current and modern Georgians have reached out, both in a geographic and Christocentric sense, to their Christian neighbors and found both help and hurt. How often have we found the same? Yet for many Georgian Baptists, such as Misha Songulashvili, it seems as though the Grail represents ecumenical unity and fellowship within and without the Georgian Baptist Church. Yes, there is sadness and historical hurt on all sides, but the focus remains on forgiveness and acceptance—not just tolerance. Wonderfully direct, the Latin inscription on the Grail reads, “Drink ye all of it.” In a recent email conversation, Malkhaz Songulashvili, archbishop of the Georgian Baptist Church, wrote:

“The Grail of Peace was certainly a symbol of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit when it was acquired for a tiny Baptist congregation in Tiflis [Tbilisi, capital of Georgia]… The chalice is the symbol of peace but it is also a symbol of love, forgiveness, and hope… None of these can be local. They are not meant only for Georgians or Americans, or even Russians, they are meant for everybody.“

In meditating on this Grail of Peace, I hope that we perceive a multifaceted example of the types of connection such as time, faith, memory and experience that are possible through effort and empathy. These events could, and should, resonate with us if we allow ourselves to see ourselves in these stories. That resonance, that vibration, that movement should inspire sympathetic vibration and action. How will you respond in your community and in your life?

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Jeremy is a recently graduated ethnomusicologist from the University of Maryland who studies intersections of music, culture, and history with a special interest in the Republic of Georgia. He is incredibly grateful to be a part of the Broadneck Baptist community and grateful to all the patient teachers in his life who put up with, or are amused by, his incessant questions.

During my six years with Church World Service, I have learned what it means to be both a Baptist and an ecumenist. Through CWS, I have grown to embrace both more deeply. In CWS I have the opportunity to work in faithfulness to God’s call, but in so doing, I have been exposed to the harshest circumstances of life—to situations that some describe as “God forsaken.” The settings where the ecumenical enterprise called CWS serves are often shocking—challenging

one’s faith and one’s humanity. By way of CWS, though, I have been encouraged by Christians from a variety of traditions, as well as those outside the Christian experience, who have chosen to not forsake their suffering neighbors or abandon their faith despite the reoccurring question: “Why?” I’ve seen the perennially committed live out their faith in inspiring ways—responding with others to life’s outrageous difficulties. This is the paradox of faith: we live through it and sometimes our faith deepens despite and because of the difficulties of life.

Although each faith tradition has its own peculiarities, I have found more similarities than what I would have imagined. Sometimes, I muse that everyone acts like Baptists! By this I mean our love of stories—those found in Scripture and in life—our need to interpret our own faith experiences, and our habit of responding with compassion to the hungry, the thirsty and the estranged. I like romanticizing Baptists this way—claiming these good things as uniquely our own. I do confess that I know these traits reach beyond our Baptist tradition(s); they are gifts from God that extend beyond our body. However, I am proud and encouraged that the Christian values we claim often transcend imposing religious categories.

Recently, colleagues from CWS had the opportunity to visit Alliance leaders to talk about the Church World Service vision called CWS 20201. This year marks the 65th year of Church World Service, born in the wake of suffering after World War II. In the future, CWS seeks to persevere in alleviating hunger and poverty, and working for peace and justice across the globe. Because our awareness of tremendous global suffering has increased, an expansion of our capacity to fight hunger and poverty across the globe is warranted. We see CWS’s programs continuing—increasing food security and nutrition, assisting vulnerable children, empowering women, providing access to water, responding to emergencies, working with displaced persons, and making sure the voices of the poor

are not ignored. In achieving this vision, CWS will continue to rely on key partners to increase our witness in this work together.

As CWS and the Alliance talked together that day, some Alliance leaders

expressed surprise that the Alliance is considered a key CWS partner. There have been many dynamic ways that the Alliance has worked hand-in-hand with Church World Service. Through the years, given the size of the Alliance, the outpouring of support from Alliance churches has surpassed the generosity of many larger communions. Nearly eight percent of all Alliance churches have participated in CWS refugee resettlement by sponsoring a displaced family who has come to the U.S. to find a new home.

Although true for too many, for many of us it’s hard to imagine growing up in a refugee camp. Dahir Adan and Fartun Mohamed spent their childhood in Dadaab—a massive, sprawling refugee camp in Kenya. They grew up, became husband and wife, and began their own family while living in this camp. One day, they received word that they were eligible for resettlement in the United States. Leaving parents and other close relatives behind, they began their new life in Columbus, Ohio. With hearts still connected to those who remain in Dadaab, they send $50 each month back to Dadaab to help supplement their parents’ meager subsistence.

The Alliance of Baptists have expressed enormous and compassionate generosity in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti. The effective coordination of response efforts there requires intentionality and tenacity. Regarding the ongoing living conditions for hundreds of thousands in Port-au-Prince and other locales, Herode Guillomettre, president of the Christian Center for Integrated Development, a CWS partner, said, “You can’t have tent cities forever. It’s important for CWS and its supporters to continue to stand behind the Haitian people, by developing a relationship that goes beyond partnership.”

ABOVE: Somalians Dahir Adan and his wife, Fartun Muhumed, spent 17 years in a Kenya refugee camp be-fore being resettled in the U.S. by CWS and Community Immigration and Refugee Services of Ohio.

In tImEs Of OutrAgEOus nEEd—ECumEnIsm

cHeryl dUdley

12

The areas that CWS has carved out as long-term initiatives in Haiti include continued support and expansion within food cooperatives that provide food security for more than 3,000 people in northwest Haiti, ongoing programs for vulnerable children, including restavek children (domestic servants), former gang members and teenage mothers in Port-au-Prince, and support for persons with disabilities who receive a $75 per-month grant for six months and assistance to repair their damaged homes. To read more of CWS Work in Haiti visit the Church World Service website and key in the word “Haiti” in the search box.

Alliance of Baptists—churches, families and individuals—have been involved in CWS in other ways. At least 15 percent of Alliance congregations have participated in CROP Hunger Walks. Many more Alliance of Baptists individuals may also be involved in local CROP Hunger Walks through other avenues in their lives. Click the ‘How to Help’ link at www.churchworldservice.org to find ways to connect or increase your involvement in CWS.

The crisis in the Horn of Africa2 is like none other. Surpassing the three million people affected by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, it has affected 13 million people who been killed, starved or displaced. The Horn of Africa, immersed in unceasing violence and war, is currently experiencing the worst drought in 60 years and the most devastating famine in 20 years. In the Horn of Africa, 750,000 malnourished children, including the severely malnourished, fight to stay alive. Every six minutes in Somalia, one child dies. CWS and other response organizations have described the crisis in the Horn of Africa as “a neglected emergency” because it attracts very little mainstream media coverage. CWS has responded by providing food aid to the eastern province of Mwingi and Kibwezi, providing drought-resistant seeds to the eastern province, and constructing sand dams and shallow wells there, as well as the Rift Valley. The enduring nature of this crisis, although barely audible in the public arena, affects the health and spirit of the whole world, and surely breaks the heart of God.

The current CWS 1.2 million dollar appeal for the Horn of Africa will merely scratch the surface in alleviating the great suffering there. Yet, that scratch will make a difference: Perhaps your church will lend a hand in this? The world’s people deserve faithful and courageous responses to the often outrageous difficulties of life. Combine your faith with action with Church World Service. Together we will prove that there is Enough for All.3

1 find out more about CWS 2020 at www.cws2020.org

2 the horn of africa includes Ethiopia, somalia and Kenya.

3 Enough for all is a cWs campaign; see www.churchworldservice.org for more information.

LEFT: Cheryl Dudley works as senior advisor in mission and theology to the CEO of Church World Service. She is a member of Alliance partner congregation Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York City. Cheryl is also current president of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America.

ABOVE: CWS-supported farming co-ops in northern Haiti are enabling families to grow food. “It means life to us,” says co-op member Elvius St. Fulis, who displays recently har-vested cassava. Photograph by Chris Herlinger.

13

EmbOdyIng ECumEnIsm

joHN boyd

Some particular interests often weave their way into the multitude of activities and concerns that define our lives as servants of Christ. For me it has been ecumenism in its broadest sense.

My exposure began in a 1950s rural union Sunday School sponsored by local Baptist and United Church of Canada

congregations. To this day I wouldn’t be able to tell you which of us children or which of our teachers were from either or any denomination!

Union Sunday Schools were not unusual in the Nova Scotia of those days, since many rural communities would not have had a Sunday School unless congregations pooled their resources to create one. The Maritime Religious Education Council, founded in the 1920s by Baptist, United and Presbyterian denominations, had fostered cooperative work through Sunday Schools, boys’ and girls’ organizations, model parliaments and camping. Many of the pastors who influenced my youth and early years of ministry had come out of this ecumenical approach to Christian education and leadership development. It is a matter of great regret that it was one of the casualties of the theological divisions that arose when the United Church, rightly, began to introduce new methods of biblical interpretation to the laity.

When I was a teen in the 60s, Vatican II suddenly, or so it seemed, made it possible for Protestant and Catholic Christians to have positive relationships with each other. My pastor was open to this idea and encouraged us to learn about the faith experience of our high school classmates from different denominations.

In those days there was still talk of “one Church” as a worthy goal for healing the broken Body of Christ, and this engendered both fear and optimism. Most main-line denominations and some Baptists devoted significant resources to ecumenical councils and gatherings. By the 70s, Atlantic Baptists were reluctant to participate in formal councils, fearing loss of identity or believing fundamentalist claims that the World Council of Churches was the Anti-Christ.

As I began ordained ministry in 1974, I was determined to forge strong relationships with the other denominations in my small-

town community and surrounding area. We formed an Inter-Church Council that offered ecumenical Lenten studies, combined services for significant community occasions and annual activities during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Our most significant project was to sponsor a Vietnamese refugee family, raising enough money to look after their needs for their first year in Canada. About six months 14

ABOVE: John Boyd and Renée Clark, ministers at First Baptist Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, lead communion during a service September 30, 2011 celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Atlantic Baptist Fellowship. Assisting are deacons David Dexter, Donna Darrell and Pauline Allsop.

ABOVE: John E. Boyd is a Canadian Baptist pastor who began his 24th year as senior minister of First Baptist Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, in August. Since ordination in 1974, John has served three pastorates and on

a variety of denominational, ecumenical, interfaith, social service, government, university and seminary boards. He is married to Debbie and they have three grown children: Tony (Jiyoung )in Korea, Adam (Michelle) in Wolfvile, N.S., and Alaina at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. John is the first Canadian to serve on the Alliance of Baptists board.

after I moved from that community to my second pastorate, I received a letter from the Pentecostal congregation, with a copy of a resolution passed at their annual meeting, thanking me for helping them become part of the Inter-Church Council—a letter I treasure to this day!

As I look back over the last three and a half decades I count ecumenical activity as a highlight of my ministry. I had the opportunity to lead the Atlantic Ecumenical Council as president, to chair an annual ecumenical continuing education event for five years, to help found two ecumenically based pastoral care departments in a hospital and nursing home and to forge relationships that have sustained me when some of my Baptist connections were none too healthy or supportive.

Currently, I am discovering the joys of interfaith relationships, through the Interfaith Council of Halifax and by hosting a lectionary study group that includes an array of Christian leaders as well as a rabbi and a Hindu leader. Studying Christian texts in an interfaith context has been stimulating and eye-opening, to say the least!

Recently First Baptist Halifax sponsored a Muslim refugee family from Iraq. Because I had come to know a local imam, I was able to arrange their pastoral care through the mosque while we looked after their material needs. A few months after the family arrived we heard that First Baptist was included in Friday prayers at the mosque! We also learned that the mosque was looking into refugee sponsorship as well. It was a moment of great meaning and joy when our congregation learned this wonderful news.

The idea of embodying ecumenism makes sense to me. I know that so many of the challenges facing my congregations and me are also being faced down the street in the church, synagogue,

temple or mosque. Honest and respectful dialogue, a willingness to seek common ground for joint action, a commitment to ethical, non-proselytizing evangelism and a generous dose of humility, mixed with good humour, can open doors to life and faith enhancing relationships.

I believe Jesus is honoured as we embody ecumenism, not only because it helps mitigate the scandal of Christians fighting over who is the greatest in the Kingdom, but also, and more profoundly, because I have met him anew in the “strangers” in whose fellowship I have come to share.

In Jesus we Christians discover the true basis for authentic human community rooted in justice, hospitality, healing and love. Embodying ecumenism, as individuals and as churches, is a powerful way of bearing witness to the Christ who eternally prays ...that they may be one, as we are one (John 17:11d).

RiGhT: From left to right: J. Daniel Gibson, the newly elected president of the Atlantic Baptist Fellowship, David Dexter, chair of deacons, First Baptist Church Halifax, Jeffrey Haggray, senior pastor, First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. and John Boyd, senior minister of First Baptist Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The photograph was taken at the reception for the 40th anniversary of the Atlantic Baptist Fellowship held at First Baptist Church, Nova Scotia. Jeffrey Haggray was the guest speaker for the occasion. 15

A few years ago while teaching at the United Theological College in Bangalore, India, through the Common Global Ministries Board of the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), my family and I lived in the house formerly occupied by Stanley Samartha when he had taught at UTC. Dr. Samartha, who specialized in the Christian theology of interfaith relations, was the first director

of the World Council of Church’s sub-unit on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies. His articulation of interfaith relations helped churches in the 20th century ecumenical movement relate to each other and to people in other faith traditions. He emphasized the need to approach dialogue with open hearts and minds and a willingness to be changed. He referred to the need to keep our baggage away from the dialogue table and to seek our commonalities. This attitude framed relationships among Christian traditions in the ecumenical movement, as well as in interfaith relations.

Ecumenical institutions created in the 20th century —from the World Council of Churches and National Council of Churches to local ecumenical worship and community projects—emerged from the theological commitment that unity is a gift of God, and division, even diversity, is a sin that must be overcome. This search for common ground created space for relationship and mutual engagement in mission. The United Church of Christ formed as a union church as a direct result of these theological commitments to unity

highlighting Jesus’ prayer “that they may all be one.”

In some ways, though, this approach to Christian ecumenical and interfaith relationships fell into the trap of defining unity as the lowest common denominator among multiple gifts and perspectives. And that did not

match the experience of strengthened possibilities created when diverse people and traditions interacted with each other in mutual collaboration. Instead, the starting place within the United Church of Christ for many ecumenical and interfaith relationships has moved to celebrate diversity as a gift of God. This unity in diversity encourages the strengths of existing bodies and commitments by

networking them into different types of relationships for mutual influence that is dynamic and life changing.

Summer Communities of Service as a collaboration of the Alliance of Baptists and United Church of Christ is one such network. It is one way of living out the 2003 formal ecumenical agreement of the national bodies of the UCC and Alliance of Baptists called “A Partnership in Mission and Ministry.”

Summer Communities of Service embody the starting point for ecumenical relationships as the gift of diversity. Local churches of both denominations host communities of two to four adults between the ages of 19 and 30. These interns engage in community mission through direct social service and justice advocacy work. They talk with each other about faith and spirituality, vocation and the nature of the church. It is an ecumenism that changes the world.

In 2011, some of these interns reflected: “[I’ve learned that] it is very important to recognize gifts already in the community instead of focusing only on the needs.” …

“One of my roommates was raised Methodist and the other UCC [and myself Catholic]. Our three different backgrounds turned out to be great. We had discussions about where our faith differed and how in many ways it was similar.” …

“It has been the best job I have ever worked. We’ve learned new skills and accomplished much.”

Unity in diversity is a theological gift that allows the strengths of multiple visions, perspectives and traditions to augment each other to produce an ecumenism that is more vibrant than its least common denominator or than the sum of its parts. Summer Communities of Service are one way in which the Alliance of Baptists and the United Church of Christ are attempting to embody and explore those gifts of God.

unIty In dIVErsItyMAry scHAller blAUfUss

Mary Schaller Blaufuss serves as the executive for Volunteer Ministries in the national setting of the United Church of Christ.  In this role, she facilitates mission trips for groups, full-time volunteer opportunities for adults of all ages, and the UCC Young Adult Service Communities and the UCC-side of Summer Communities of Service. An ordained UCC minister, she has served as pastor of congregations in Southeast Pennsylvania and Northwest Iowa. Her academic work is in the areas of mission, history of religions and ecumenics with degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Eden Theological Seminary and Westminster College, Fulton, Mo. Her most recent book is Experiments in Mutuality:  The United Church of Christ in Global Mission (1985-2010).16

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17

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thE futurE Of ECumEnIsmpAUlA clAyToN deMpsey

18

I plead with you, then, in the name of our Redeemer, to lead a life worthy of your calling. Treat one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the peace that binds you together. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called into one hope when you were called. There is one Savior, one faith, one baptism, one God and Creator of all, who is over all, who works through all and is within all.

—Ephesians 4:1-6, The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation

At the beginning of my role nurturing the mission and ministry partnerships and ecumenical relationships of the Alliance I bemoaned that as a seminary student I had bypassed the opportunity to study Christian Mission with Alan Neely. What kind of educational foundation did I have for leading the mission of the

Alliance or for representing the Alliance on the governing board of the National Council of Churches?

Needing a quick 101 in ecumenism, I set up a meeting with my retired career missionary neighbor, Calvin Parker, who prepared me for my first meeting with heads of communions from across the nation. He explained how the modern ecumenical movement has its roots in the church’s endeavors to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. More than 100 years ago, Christian missionaries found their witness to be stronger when they shared it together—regardless of denominational distinctions.

After participating in meetings of the NCCC, I now wonder, will it take a global economic recession for the church to live into the truth affirmed more than a century ago? And for a denominational body born out of division and dissent, how do we live out the truth that our witness is stronger when we cooperate rather than compete?

As a leader in the Alliance, I visit the work other communions and denominational bodies are doing in the world and ask, “What are they doing that reflects Alliance values and vision?”

“How might we make visible the unity of the church to which we aspire as we grow the mission and ministry of the Alliance?”

Out of these visits emerged Summer Communities of Services, our exciting program for young adults being offered in full collaboration with the United Church of Christ. I’ll never forget the look on Mary Schaller Blaufuss’ face when I told her our vision for ministry with young adults. She glowed and responded, “It’s supposed to be ecumenical!” and proceeded to invite us to collaborate in a nascent program that addressed all we envisioned—and more! The beauty of SCOS is that when the Alliance and UCC young adults are in the same room, responding to the same needs in the world, the differences give way to oneness of purpose and common bonds are formed in the desire to love God and neighbor.

Theologian Barbara Wheeler advocates for a church she calls a “tense, edgy, difficult church made up of strangers, who cling to each other for dear life in the same chilly, rocky baptismal boat because we are headed toward the same destination.” (p. 19, Christian Century, January 13, 2004). She says the church is better off—more productive and more faithful—when those of us who are strangers to each other hold on to one another. We need each other to do the work of loving God and loving neighbor. I agree with her.

Our partner in ministry, Church World Service, also agrees. In a recent visit conducted with representatives from CWS and the Alliance, CWS referred to the Alliance as a key player, a valued partner. I quickly protested, our numbers are so small, how can we be a significant partner to you? Our strength to CWS is the degree to which our congregations are passionate about reaching out to the needy in the world. If other denominational bodies had responded as Alliance congregations to the plea for funds for disaster relief for earthquake-ravaged Haiti, the abundance would have been overwhelming!

In the face of political, economic, racial, ecclesial and ecological complexity, our common witness in the world is needed now more than ever. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a little more than 47 years ago from a Birmingham jail, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

thE futurE Of ECumEnIsmpAUlA clAyToN deMpsey

19

As a denominational body we, the Alliance of Baptists, are perhaps the most free to form partnerships and alliances across traditions never dreamt before. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the NCCC, recently remarked, “Christians…are distinguished by our expectations, by our refusal to accept what is as all that will be, by our insistence on imagining a different way of living — in short, by our hope.” It was out of this hope, this insistence on imagining a different way of being Baptist in the world that the Alliance was born. The same hope leads us now to seek and find where the Spirit of God is at work and join our energies with those energies, to recognize our interrelatedness and our interdependence, and to join hands with others loving God and loving neighbor.

LEFT: From Left: Paula Clayton Dempsey, Cheryl Dudley and Raul Saurez at National Council of Churches Centennial Assembly November 2010. Raul, who came to the New Orleans event with a delegation from Cuba, was one of the founders of the Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba and is retired as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Marianao. Raul is also the founder of the Martin Luther King Center in Havana and served as its director until 2005. He has been a member of the National Assembly in Cuba since the 1990s representing the Federation of Cuban Workers.

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COngrEgAtIOnAl gIVIngThank you to all the Alliance partner congregations who faithfully support the Alliance each year. Listed below are the congregations who have so generously given throughout 2011.

$1.00 to $999.00Riverside Baptist Church Jacksonville Fl.

Emmanuel Baptist Church Albany N.Y.

Grandin Court Baptist Church Roanoke Va.

Cliff Temple Baptist Church Dallas Texas

Englewood Baptist Church Kansas City Mo.

First Baptist Church of Clemson Clemson S.C.

Jefferson Street Baptist Community at Liberty Louisville Ky.

San Leandro Community Church San Leandro Calif.

University Baptist Church Minneapolis Minn.

Old Cambridge Baptist Church Cambridge Mass.

Calvary Baptist Church Towson Md.

Austin Heights Baptist Church Nacogdoches Texas

Madison Baptist Fellowship Madison Mo.

First Baptist Church of Front Royal Front Royal Va.

Grace Covenant Church of Oak Ridge Oak Ridge Tenn.

Metro Baptist Church New York N.Y.

Lakeside Baptist Church Rocky Mount N.C.

Lime Rock Baptist Church Lincoln R.I.

Church in the Cliff Dallas Texas

First Baptist Church of Christ at Macon Macon Ga.

Twinbrook Baptist Church Rockville Md.

College Park Baptist Church Greensboro N.C.

First Baptist Church in Newton Newton Centre Mass.

First Baptist Church of Dayton Dayton Ohio

First Baptist Church of Rochester Rochester N.Y.

First Baptist Church of Worcester Worcester Mass.

Judson Memorial Baptist Church Minneapolis Minn.

Shell Ridge Community Church Walnut Creek Calif.

University Baptist Church Hattiesburg Miss.

Virginia-Highland Church Atlanta Ga.

Williamsburg Baptist Church Williamsburg Va.

Wake Forest Baptist Church Winston-Salem N.C.

New Heights Baptist Church Gaffney S.C.

First Baptist Church of Pittsfield Pittsfield Mass.

Greenwood Forest Baptist Church Cary N.C.

Cross Creek Community Church Centerville Ohio

Mars Hill Baptist Church Mars Hill N.C.

St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church New Orleans La.

First Baptist Church of Savannah Savannah Ga.

First Baptist Church of Asheville Asheville N.C.

Grace Baptist Church Statesville N.C.

University Baptist Church Austin Texas

Church of the Savior Cedar Park Texas

University Baptist Church Columbus Ohio

Commonwealth Baptist Church Alexandria VA

21

Heritage Baptist Church of Cartersville Cartersville Ga.

$1,000.00 to $2,499.00Glade Church Blacksburg Va.

Highland Baptist Church Louisville Ky.

Northside Baptist Church Clinton Miss.

Starling Avenue Baptist Church Martinsville Va.

Williston Immanuel United Church Portland Maine

Circle of Mercy Asheville N.C.

Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church Oakland Calif.

First Baptist Church of Columbia Columbia Mo.

Ginter Park Baptist Church Richmond Va.

Highland Park Baptist Church Austin Texas

Calvary Baptist Church Roanoke Va.

Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church Chapel Hill N.C.

Grace Baptist Church Richmond Va.

Southside Baptist Church Birmingham Ala.

Northminster Baptist Church Richmond Va.

Millbrook Baptist Church Raleigh N.C.

Park Road Baptist Church Charlotte N.C.

St. John’s Baptist Church Charlotte N.C.

Ellis Avenue Church Chicago Ill.

First Baptist Church of Silver Spring Silver Spring Md.

Lake Shore Baptist Church Waco Texas

Village Baptist Church Bowie Md.

Vienna Baptist Church Vienna Va.

$2,500.00 to $4,999.00Cumberland First Baptist Church Indianapolis Ind.

University Baptist Church College Park Md.

Crescent Hill Baptist Church Louisville Ky.

Broadneck Baptist Church Annapolis Md.

Central Baptist Church Wayne Penn.

Covenant Church Houston Texas

Calvary Baptist Church Washington D.C.

Ravensworth Baptist Church Annandale Va.

Pullen Memorial Baptist Church Raleigh N.C.

Knollwood Baptist Church Winston Salem N.C.

First Baptist Church of Greenville Greenville S.C.

Kirkwood Baptist Church Kirkwood Mo.

$5,000.00 to $9999.00Noank Baptist Church Groton Conn.

Myers Park Baptist Church Charlotte N.C.

Northminster Church Monroe La.

Northside Drive Baptist Church Atlanta Ga.

Northminster Baptist Church Jackson Miss.

Glendale Baptist Church Nashville Tenn.

Oakhurst Baptist Church Decatur Ga.

$10,000.00 +New Ground San Francisco Calif.

Baptist Church of the Covenant Birmingham Ala.

Woodbrook Baptist Church Baltimore Md.

please consider making a financial gift to the Alliance of baptists today. your contribution directly funds the mission and ministry of the Alliance around the world.

JaimE clarK-solEs has taught New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University since 2001. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Stetson University where she studied philosophy and Russian studies, she earned her master’s degree in divinity from Yale Divinity School and her doctorate in New Testament from Yale University.

She is the author of Engaging the Word: The New Testament and the Christian Believer Death and Afterlife in the New Testament, and Scripture Cannot Be Broken.

Jaime enjoys speaking widely and writing for both academic and popular audiences. She has contributed articles to preaching resources in print and online — including Feasting on the Word and workingpreacher.org. She also writes and speaks about teaching the Bible effectively using resources from popular culture. Currently, she is writing a book on the Gospel of John as well as a book on Women in the Bible for the Interpretation series. She also appears in the Johannine videos in the Disciple Bible Study series.

As an ordained American Baptist minister, she has served in both parish and hospice settings. She is a member at Church in the Cliff in Dallas.22

“WhErE tWO Or thrEE ArE gAthErEd In my nAmE, I Am thErE In thEIr mIdst.” Matthew 18:20, The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation

musIC And EmbOdIEdsPIrItuAlItyA sOng tO sIng, A lIfE tO lIVEDaily prayers, spaces for silence, and workshops in a beautiful contemplative setting will complement a meaningful dialogue of heart, mind and body during the Alliance Spirituality Gathering Feb.

9-12, 2012, at The Center for New Beginnings in the north Georgia mountains at Dahlonega, Ga.

Worship leaders, musicians, gospel proclaimers, people in the pew, seekers of a richer and deeper spirituality—all will find a rich and insightful experience during this time that will call us to a deepening life in the Spirit.

Don Saliers, an accomplished musician, theologian, and scholar of liturgics, will guide Gathering participants in exploring how to embody one’s spirituality. An engaging presenter, he draws from a deep well of spiritual insight.

Until his retirement in 2007, he served as professor of theology and worship at Emory University for 33 years. Don is also the author of numerous books on the relationship between theology and worship, including A Song to Sing, a Life to Live, which he co-authored with his daughter Emily Saliers, a member of the Indigo Girls.

Early-bird Registration due December 9, 2011—$100 Registration after December 9, 2011—$120

Housing and Meals for double occupancy room—$255

thursdAy, fEbruAry 9, 20125:30–6:30 p.m. Dinner8:30 p.m. Fellowship9:00 p.m. Evening prayers with Jerry Weber, followed by silence until

morning prayers

frIdAy, fEbruAry 10, 20127:30 a.m. Breaking silence with morning prayers8:00–8:45 a.m. Breakfast8:45 a.m. Morning stretches, led by Nancy Noel9:00 a.m. Academy Presentation I by Don Saliers:

Psalms of Lament10:00 a.m. Silence11:00 a.m. Conversation with Don11:45 a.m. Mid-day prayers12:00–1:00 p.m. Lunch3:00–4:30 p.m. Afternoon Options:

Body Prayers–Stephanie FordJournaling–Bonnie McCarsonWalking Meditation–Velma Ferrell

5:30–6:30 p.m. Dinner7:00 p.m. Academy Presentation II by Don Saliers: Psalms of Doxology8:00 p.m. Silence9:00 p.m. Conversation with Don9:30 p.m. Evening prayers, followed by silence until morning prayers

sAturdAy, fEbruAry 11, 20127:30 a.m. Breaking silence with morning prayers8:00–8:45 a.m. Breakfast8:45 a.m. Morning stretches9:00 a.m. Academy Presentation III by Don Saliers: Music as Language

of the Soul Made Audible, Healing as Well as Challenge10:00 a.m. Silence11:00 a.m. Conversation with Don11:45 a.m. Mid-day prayers12:00–1:00 p.m. Lunch3:00–4:30 pm Afternoon Options: Dreams–Stephanie Ford

Drumming Circle–Karen ShippClosing Worship Planning–Daniel Miles (Available to offer spiritual direction: Carolyn Ashburn and Daniel Miles)

5:30–6:30 p.m. Dinner9:00 p.m. Evening PrayersFollowing evening prayers

Fellowship on our last night together

sundAy, fEbruAry 12, 20127:30 a.m. Morning prayers8:00–8:45 a.m. Breakfast8:45 a.m. Morning stretches9:00 a.m. Wrap-up, including evaluations and preparation for departure10:00 a.m. Closing worship

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JEnnifEr WriGht Knust is an associate professor of New Testament at the Boston University School of Theology. Author of Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions

about Sex and Desire and editor of Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice, she has published widely on biblical interpretation, religious practices in antiquity, the transmission of the New Testament and the history of the Christian Bible. An ordained American Baptist pastor, she is an active member of First Baptist Church Jamaica Plain, where she directs the children’s Sunday School.

miGuEl a. DE la torrE, professor of Social Ethics at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.  He  has received several national book awards and is a frequent speaker at national scholarly religious events and meetings and at churches and nonprofit organizations on topics concerning the intersection of race, class and gender with religion. 

susan sparKs, pastor of the historic Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York, is also a stand-up comedian,

trial lawyer, and breast cancer survivor who worked at Mother Teresa’s mission in Calcutta, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and drove across the United States on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

And when she isn’t preaching, lecturing around the country, or doing her stand-up act in numerous comedy clubs—including the famous Caroline’s in New York—Susan is busy teaching a comedy course to clergymen and women of every faith. Her book Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming Humor in the Spiritual Path was published in 2010.

alan shErousE is pastor of Metro Baptist Church in Midtown Manhattan, an Alliance partner congregation. Metro is home to Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries, a multifaceted community ministry with the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Alan is married to Jenny Sherouse, a photographer. They live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with their 20-month-old son, John Daniel—Alan’s friends call him “Jack.” The son of

a Baptist minister and music educator, Alan grew up in Florida where he graduated from Palm Beach Atlantic University before attending Wake Forest University Divinity School and Vanderbilt University. 

JaimE clarK-solEs has taught New Testament at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University since 2001. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Stetson University where she studied philosophy and Russian studies, she earned her master’s degree in divinity from Yale Divinity School and her doctorate in New Testament from Yale University.

She is the author of Engaging the Word: The New Testament and the Christian Believer Death and Afterlife in the New Testament, and Scripture Cannot Be Broken.

Jaime enjoys speaking widely and writing for both academic and popular audiences. She has contributed articles to preaching resources in print and online — including Feasting on the Word and workingpreacher.org. She also writes and speaks about teaching the Bible effectively using resources from popular culture. Currently, she is writing a book on the Gospel of John as well as a book on Women in the Bible for the Interpretation series. She also appears in the Johannine videos in the Disciple Bible Study series.

As an ordained American Baptist minister, she has served in both parish and hospice settings. She is a member at Church in the Cliff in Dallas. 23

bAPtIsts On thE frOntIEr:lIbErAtIOn! CElEbrAtIOn! AntICIPAtIOn!25th Anniversary of the Alliance of Baptistsapril 13-15, 2012Highland Park Baptist Church | Austin, Texas

frIdAy, APrIl 13, 201210:00 a.m. Registration and Exhibit Hall Opens

10:30 – 11:45 a.m Gatherings and Communities

12:00 – 1:30 p.m. lauGh lunch with susan sparKs

2:00 – 3:15 p.m. Opening Gathering and Worship with alan shErousE

3:15 p.m. Break

3:45 – 5:00 p.m. Workshops I

5:15 – 6:45 p.m. Buffet Dinner – Paid Option

7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Worship with susan sparKs

sAturdAy, APrIl 14, 20128:45 – 9:00 a.m. Morning Worship

9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Annual Meeting Part 1

10:30 a.m. Break

11:00 – 12:15 p.m. Workshops II

12:30 – 1:45 p.m. Box Lunch / Gatherings of Communities

2:00 – 3:45 p.m. Annual Meeting Part 2

4:00 – 5:15 p.m. Worship with JEnnifEr WriGht Knust

5:15 – 6:30 p.m. Birthday Party Reception

sundAy, APrIl 15, 20129:30 – 10:30 a.m. Bible study with JaimE clarK-solEs

10:55 a.m. Worship with miGuEl DE la torrE

Early Bird through March 15—$105Regular Registration after March 15—$140

“WhErE tWO Or thrEE ArE gAthErEd In my nAmE, I Am thErE In thEIr mIdst.” Matthew 18:20, The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation

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NON PROFIT ORGUS POSTAGE

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Celebrating 25 years of mission and ministry

Celebrating 25 years of mission and ministry

Celebrating 25 years of mission and ministry