William Moses Summerville has been named executive director of Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America.
The announcement of the organization’s first Black executive director coincided with Juneteenth, which Summerville said was a happy alignment.
William Summerville
“Being Black American, this call to lead highlights this historic moment commemorating Juneteenth,” he said. “For me to be here, I believe this is the desegregated intent of my ancestors and the founders of BPFNA — Bautistas por la Paz.”
Summerville currently serves as founding pastor of Kingdom Come Community Church in Long Beach, Calif. A graduate of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, he is currently a doctoral candidate at Omega Graduate School in Dayton, Tenn., researching cultural empathy and leadership dynamics.
“In memory of my parents, Willie T. and Valerian Alexander Summerville, I honor this opportunity to lead with passion and compassion,” he said. “My goal for service is to live up to God’s objective that world peace and the kingdom of God really do go hand in hand.”
Founded in 1984 with roots in the Baptist Pacifist Fellowship organized in 1940, BPFNA — Bautistas por la Paz is the largest Baptist network of international peacemakers. The organization works together to witness to God’s peace rooted in justice by gathering peacemakers for worship and fellowship, equipping them with resources for ministry in their local contexts and mobilizing them in response to pressing concerns.
BPFNA relates to more than 4,000 individuals and congregations in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Africa. It is the first Baptist organization with a formal commitment to bilingualism, requiring official communication in both English and Spanish.