WASHINGTON (ABP) — The first woman president of a consortium of Baptist seminaries in Asia died June 25 in Singapore.
Lilian Lim, a Chinese woman born and based in Singapore, made history in 2005 when she was elected president of the Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary, a consortium of nine schools strategically placed to train Baptist leaders in areas where Christians are a small minority.
Colleagues described Lim as "a simple lady with a simple faith." Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, called her "a fine person with an alert mind and a loving and gentle spirit."
"In the passing of Lilian, the entire community of theological students and teachers in Asia has lost a distinguished leader and the Baptist World Alliance a gifted theologian and a sensitive soul," Callam said. "May her soul rest in peace."
Lim converted to Christianity at a young age, against the wishes of her traditional Chinese parents. She became a teacher, and later followed a calling as a pastor and academician.
She received theological training at Baptist Theological Seminary of Singapore, one of the schools comprising the ABGTS, and earned a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1994.
Before heading the consortium, Lim was academic dean and vice president of BTS in Singapore.
The ABGTS was formed in 1959 by the then-Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. When the renamed International Mission Board pulled out in 1999, Mercer University in Macon, Ga., provided supplemental funding to keep the seminary open. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship provided support through scholarships and service of global missions personnel.
Lim was the sixth president of ABTGS and the first female. She was active in the Baptist World Alliance and member of a BWA team participating in ongoing Baptist-Roman Catholic conversations between global Baptists and the Vatican. http://www.bwanet.org/default.aspx?pid=731
She spoke frequently at BWA events and wrote one of the Bible studies that will be used during the BWA's 20th Baptist World Congress scheduled in 2010 in Hawaii. According to a BWA news release, Lim battled illness throughout her life.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press. mailto:[email protected]