WASHINGTON — An advocate for Burmese refugees has been named director of Baptist World Aid, an agency which works closely with Baptist disaster relief organizations in Virginia and North Carolina.
Rothangliani Rema Chhangte will assume her new role with BWAid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, on Aug. 1. She succeeds Paul Montacute, who retires in July.
Rothangliani Chhangte
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BWAid works closely with the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's disaster relief services and with North Carolina Baptist Men in providing assistance after disasters such as the earthquakes in Haiti in 2010 and Japan in 2011.
Chhangte, liaison for Burmese refugees with American Baptist Home Mission Societies, was approved March 7 by the BWA’s executive committee at its regular meeting in Falls Church, Va., according to a BWA press statement.
The new director has served on the ministerial staffs of Baptist churches in Philadelphia and served on the BWA General Council from 2001-2007. She also has been program analysis coordinator with Church World Service; director of ecumenical formation for the American Baptist Churches USA; executive director of the Asian American Youth Association; and administrator at the Oxford Conference on Christian Faith and Economics.
Since 2006, she has been a member of the central committee of the World Council of Churches and has been a member of the executive committee and governing board of the National Council of Churches, co-chairing its Interfaith Commission between 2004 and 2007.
She holds a master of divinity degree from Palmer Theological Seminary and a master of business administration degree from Eastern University, two Baptist-affiliated schools near Philadelphia.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald. This story is based on reporting by Eron Henry, the Baptist World Alliance’s associate director of communications.