By Bob Allen
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has agreed to function as liaison for religious liberty on behalf of the Baptist World Alliance, CBF Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter reported to the group’s Governing Board Jan. 22.
Paynter said BWA leaders approached the Decatur, Ga.,-based CBF after Raimundo Barreto, a former Brazilian pastor named in 2009 as first director of a new BWA Division of Freedom and Justice, resigned last year to join the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary.
Instead of seeking a new director, BWA General Secretary Neville Callam asked the 1,800-church Fellowship to take the lead in coordinating international religious-liberty functions for the 110-year-old organization representing more than 40 million Baptists in 121 countries and territories around the world. The CBF became a BWA member in 2003.
Paynter said the CBF has engaged Mark Wiggs, an attorney and writer in Jackson, Miss., who formerly served as chair of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, to assume the portfolio as a volunteer.
“If you know Mark, you know that religious liberty lights his fire, gives him joy, is his passion,” Paynter said in her report during the opening session of the leadership group’s regularly scheduled Jan. 21-22 meeting at First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. “So we feel so grateful to have him in this position.”
Wiggs’ main focus will be the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationships with the United Nations — also known as CoNGO. The group facilitates the participation of non-governmental organizations in UN decision-making and programs related to economic and social justice.
The BWA is one of a number of religious groups among the 333 NGOs recognized as a full member of CoNGO, entitling it to credentials at UN meetings in New York, Geneva and Vienna.
Shane McNary, who works for CBF global missions in Slovakia, has already represented CBF at UN meetings about human rights in Geneva, and Phyllis Boozer, coordinator of the Baptist Fellowship of the Northeast and a member of Wilton (Conn.) Baptist Church, has participated in meetings of the UN Committee on Concerns of the Status of Women.
Scott Stearman, until recently pastor of Kirkwood Baptist Church in St. Louis, is now also available to represent Baptists with BWA credentials in his new job as pastor of Metro Baptist Church in New York City.
Stephen Reeves, associate coordinator of partnerships and advocacy, welcomed the new volunteers.
“This is a steep learning curve, and I was so happy to have Raimundo holding my hand and helping to explain the UN and all the various structures and ways we can plug in,” Reeves said. “We don’t have that anymore, so I’m really thankful for Mark to come and to help coordinate this effort and certainly very pleased that Scott Stearman was called to Metro and can be a team member there.”
Paynter said in addition to his work at the United Nations, Wiggs will also represent the CBF at religious-liberty organizations in Washington such as the Institute for Global Engagement, a think tank dedicated to creating an environment for religious freedom worldwide.
Jeff Huett, associate coordinator of communications and advancement, said the new covenant with the BWA builds on an earlier partnership to increase the CBF presence at the UN announced last year.
The CBF formed in the early 1990s as a product of controversy within the Southern Baptist Convention over differences including women in ministry, theological education and the separation of church and state.
After the BWA accepted the CBF as a member, the SBC, the largest BWA member body and biggest funding source, pulled out of the organization it helped create in 1905 because current leaders believed it was influenced too much by liberals.
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