By Bob Allen Curtis Ramsey-Lucas, managing director of resource development for American Baptist Home Mission Societies, has been named director of interfaith engagement for an outreach arm of the American Association of People with Disabilities. In an agreement between the…
ABC authorizes emergency grant for Liberian Baptists
By BNG staff The American Baptist Churches USA has approved an emergency grant of $120,000 to provide food and medical supplies to Liberia, the West African nation hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak, the denomination announced Oct. 28. The grant,…
2 seminaries with Baptist ties join others adding science curricula
By Jeff Brumley As high-profile, science-versus-faith debates rage across the nation, a handful of American seminaries, including two with Baptist ties, are pursuing the notion that reason and religion are compatible and even complementary. Andover Newton Theological School and Wake…
Baptist couple has edge most missionaries can only envy
By Vicki Brown and Jeff Brumley Growing up in an impoverished, patriarchal society provided excellent training for missionaries Nzunga and Kihomi Mabudiga. The Congo natives have served in Haiti for 17 years with the American Baptist Churches USA’s International Ministries….
African Baptists ask world’s churches to set aside Oct. 11-12 for Ebola prayer
By Bob Allen The All-Africa Baptist Fellowship has set aside Sunday, Oct. 12, to focus prayer on the Ebola outbreak, which to date has claimed more than 3,000 lives across West Africa. The prayer focus, endorsed by leaders of American…
American Baptist missions group condemns both anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim prejudice
By Bob Allen Meeting on the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the board of directors of American Baptist International Ministries passed resolutions condemning both anti-Semitism and prejudice against Muslims. Citing acts of anti-Semitism including…
American Baptist Home Mission Societies executive to retire next year
By Robert Dilday Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III has announced plans to retire next year as executive director and chief executive officer of American Baptist Home Mission Societies, completing the longest tenure of any leader of the 182-year-old organization linked with…
Faith leaders on both sides of border pray for children
By Bob Allen Faith leaders from mainline Protestant, Catholic and Jewish traditions formed facing semi-circles on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border Aug. 29 for a prayer vigil organized by missionaries and the head of American Baptist Churches USA. Roy…
Baptists prepared for Calif. quake response
By Jeff Brumley The CrossWalk Community Church social media presence changed drastically in tone over the weekend, from good-natured ice bucket challenges on Saturday to urgent pleas to help earthquake victims on Sunday. “We will be open for prayer at…
American Baptist region defrocks minister charged with larceny
By Bob Allen The American Baptist Churches of Connecticut has withdrawn the ordination of a pastor accused in criminal and civil cases of misusing his ministerial status to bilk the elderly. Judy Allbee, executive minister of the regional arm of…
American Baptist leader asks churches to address growing global conflict
By Robert Dilday The general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA is calling on each of the denomination’s 5,200 congregations to offer prayers each Sunday in August for nations impacted by the “continued escalation of conflict” around the globe this…
American Baptists defend clergy housing allowance
By Bob Allen American Baptist Churches USA joined other faith groups in a friend-of-the-court brief filed last month urging the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the ministerial housing allowance as a constitutional accommodation of religion. The brief…