KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Baptists will begin preparatory conversations later this year with representatives of both Orthodox Christianity and Pentecostal churches, aiming for eventual formal theological dialogue with both, a Baptist World Alliance leader announced July 7.
BWA general secretary Neville Callam told the global organization’s executive committee that teams have been named to initiate the discussions, which are part of the BWA’s assignment to improve understanding and cooperation between Baptists and other Christian communities. The executive committee met in conjunction with the BWA’s Annual Gathering July 4-9 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Neville Callam addresses the executive committee of the Baptist World Alliance's General Council.
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Last March, the executive committee authorized Callam to name a small work team “to explore the commencement of BWA/Pentecostal bilateral dialogue.” Callam told the committee July 7 the team will be led by Timothy George, dean and professor of divinity, history and doctrine at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala., where the dialogue with representatives of Pentecostal denominations and charismatic groups will occur Dec. 13-15.
George chairs the BWA’s commission on doctrine and Christian unity. Other team members are Callam; William Brackney, director of the Acadia Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia; Curtis Freeman, director and research professor of theology at Duke Divinity School’s Baptist House of Studies in Durham, N.C.; and Fausto Vasconcelos, director of the BWA’s division of mission, evangelism and theological reflection.
In November, a four-person team appointed by Callam will meet in Crete with representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of about 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.
In addition to George and Callam, the other team members are Paul Fiddes, professor of systematic theology at Oxford University and formerly principal of Oxford’s Regent’s Park College, and Parush Parushev, academic dean, lecturer in applied theology and director of the Institute of Systematic Studies of Contextual Theologies at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic.
Eron Henry is associate director of communications for the Baptist World Alliance.