Report to BUGB Council by Revd. Dr. Clive Jarvis
EBF COUNCIL
Lisbon, Portugal 24-28 September 2008
Of the 53 National member bodies of the EBF around 40 have sent delegates to the Council. During the Council the Palestinian Evangelical (Baptist) Council of Churches represented by their Chairman Pastor Munir Kakish would be welcomed as the latest member of the EBF Family (see below).
EBF and Creation Care
The theme for this Council was a ‘Biblical Basis for Ecological Concern.’ After a number of presentations group discussions followed on this issue and these were very interesting it became clear that for whilst this is a growing mantra in the West is not something of great concern to many of the Eastern European and Middle Eastern Unions represented at the Council. ‘Creation Care’ was seem by most of those in the group I was in as a genuine matter for Christians to be aware of but it was not high on their list of priorities. For those from Israel issues of peace and security loomed larger, for many from former Soviet Satellites, especially in Muslim states, issues of persecution are much more real, and for yet others basic day to day survival for their families are what really matters. Perhaps it is only in a country where we have no concerns about such basic questions that we can be free to think more globally and more long term.
On Day two of the Councuil we had a presentation from the ecological organisation ‘A Rocha’ which was founded by missionaries in Portugal. They are now an international organisation bringing Christian Ideals to their environmental and conservation ministry working alongside national and local government throughout the world. At Vallee des Baux in France they work with local farmers restoring the land to its original use as a habitat for wild life after attempts to alter it into agricultural land had disastrous knock on environmental effects. In the Czech Republic they are involved in a major ‘bird monitoring’ project. They also work to help churches understand the kinks between faith and the environment which in the UK is a scheme to help churches reduce their carbon footprint. Their Mediterranean Programme seeks to halt biodiversity loss at selected sites in Portugal, France and the Lebanon. Underlying all they do is their Biblical Faith in a living God who loves the world he created and who seeks its redemption (John 3:16). One of the main arguments put forward by ‘A Rocha’ is that it is only through proper care of the environment which includes the sustainability of food stocks that UN goals on eradicating world hunger by 2015 can be reached.
It also came to light that ‘A Rocha’ operate an alternative carbon footprint compensation scheme to the airlines and both EBF and BUGB have been asked to consider by delegates at the Conference if they might join this scheme in the light of the heavy use of airlines made by both organisations.
Toward the end of the Conference the following Resolution in respect of this issue was passed by the Council:
THE COUNCIL OF RTHE EUROPEAN BAPTIST FEDERATION MEETING IN CARCAVELOS NEAR LISBON, PORTUGAL 24TH-28TH SEPTEMBER 2008;
Rejoices that the biblical vision of creation and natural resources affirms God’s possession of the earth, its inhabitants and resources.
The earth
is the Lord's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
Psalm 24:1 (ANIV)
Repents of attitudes and
practices which have restricted or ignored our stewardship of creation and the
earth’s resources, resulting in the misuse and abuse of the environment and its
natural resources.
Invites leaders of the Baptist Unions throughout the EBF to encourage and advocate local church, community and government projects which address the causes of climat change, and encourages awareness of ecological issues and the sustainability of living.
Challenges union, local churches and individuals to witness through enabling effective Christian discipleship by communicating creation care as a natural outworking of the Gospel.
Encourages churches to incorporate a biblical vision of creation and environmental stewardship in the worship and teaching of the local church.
EBF and Theological Education
Day 2 began with worship and Keith Jones, former Deputy General Secretary of the Baptist Union (BUGB) continued to speak on the theme of Creation Care. Keith is now Rector (Principal) of the European Baptist Seminary (IBTS) in Prague. At one time IBTS (when it was based at Rushlikon in Switzerland) was the only place that Pastors from Eastern Europe could train for Ministry. Now there are seminaries in Moscow, Moldova, Bulgaria, Armenia and Budapest to name a few. However, IBTS still has a crucial role to play in the development of the EBF as it now only offers higher degrees and is the place that those who will teach in the seminaries further to the East now come for their Master’s and Doctoral degrees. It is also where the offices of the EBF are to be found.
We learnt that IBTS was celebrating its 60th Anniversary and now had 60 students undertaking doctoral research. As with all institutions at the present finance is an ongoing concern for the Seminary. The Hotel opened by IBTS within the Seminary is not making the financial contribution to the life of the College that was hoped, though it is not costing the college anything as it is meeting its budget. Many colleges rely on contributions from former students but in the case of IBTS many of these are from Eastern Europe and the Middle East and so not in a position to make such contributions. Hotel Jeneralka on the site of the seminary welcomes visitors to the City all year round and is by all accounts a very comfortable place to stay if you are ever in the city.
IBTS Prague
There are now 31 Seminaries within the EBF which is why IBTS has become a centre for excellence for Post Graduate studies and EBF helps to co-ordinate and support them. Many of the Seminaries in the East are very new and quite small (though the Hungarian Seminary is now a century old) and so the Conference held this year in Moscow for Librarians was extremely useful as most of the smaller colleges do not have trained librarians but a Lecturer who gets landed with this extra job. For them the issues surround making small libraries work and making small libraries grow into bigger ones for it is difficult for places of learning to thrive with small libraries. Keith Jones (Rector of IBTS) reported on the Seventh BICTE (Baptist International Conference of Theological Educators) that occurs once every seven years which met in Prague this year. Baptist Theologians from Seminaries all over the world attend this Conference which is a place for them to share fellowship, discuss relevant theological issues and ensure some measure of consistency around the world in the formation of ministers.
EBF and the BWA
Council now switched its attention to hear a report from Dr.
Neville Callam the new General Secretary of the
Baptist World Alliance (BWA) on their work and ministry. He reminded us of our common heritage whereby
the church is understood as a local gathering or assembly of believers who
under the guidance of the Spirit seek to serve and follow Jesus Christ. Yet we are also people who value partnerships
with other believers at local, regional, national and international levels. Dr. Callam sees the
BWA as a movement rather than an organisation that seeks to reflect the
concerns of a worldwide church. At the
heart of our identity is our participation in the worldwide mission of God
established in the sending by the Father of the Son for the salvation of the
World. The report from Paul Montecute of Baptist World Aid referred to their activities
in Georgia immediately after the events of this summer and also the strenuous
efforts to support the large Baptist minority 
suffering
so greatly in Myanmar in North East India under the persecution of fanatical
Hindus. In recent weeks hundreds of
Baptist churches have been attacked and tens of thousands of Baptists made
homeless with hundreds or reported 
deaths. The last part of this report from Emmitt
Dunne was to encourage us to bring the world to the next Congress of the BWA to
be held in Hawaii in 2010. He accepted
it was a long way and expensive to travel to but pointed out that for the rest
of the world Birmingham 2005 was also expensive and a long way but nevertheless
11,000 came. Anyone fancy a trip to
Hawaii – it’s tough but someone has to go!!!
EBF Divisions (Committees)
After Coffee on Day 2 we received reports from the various EBF Working Groups. Tony Peck (EBF General Secretary) spoke of discussions that have taken place between the EBF and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). The CPCE is essentially made up of Lutheran and Reformed churches and seek to speak for Protestants as a whole in Europe. The EBF are seeking to join CPCE as associate rather than full members but this is proving tricky as they don’t possess such a category and full membership is not thought an option given some of the theological issues that rest between us.
Anna Maffei, general Secretary of the Italian Union reported for the Division of External Relations on matters relating to justice. This included the work of the Anti Trafficking group who seek to co-ordinate a response to what is a European wide issue. A Conference at Copenhagen in May 2008 was attended by representatives from 19 Unions with the emphasis on delegates promoting in their unions the work of the group and maintains strong links with one another as conduits for information. The group are currently working on a resource that is aimed at changing the attitudes of those men whose sexual appetites are driving the trafficking of young female sex slaves for which the UK is the prime destination in Europe.
The next report was delivered by Christian
Daelander from Sweden the chair of the Religious Freedom task Force. This was established last year and a Strategy
for Religious Freedom was brought before the Council and adopted. We then greeted and heard from the delegates
from Turkmenistan (Vasily Korabov, Hudayberdi Jumanazarov) and Pastor Zaur
from Azerbaijan, who was only released from Prison at Easter following a
concerted campaign that many of us participated in.
Pastor Zaur spoke of his gratitude to everyone for the help they gave in seeking his release earlier this year. He spoke of what he felt was the oppression of the government in Azerbaijan of the church and its message of freedom in Christ. His church meets in his back yard but although he was imprisoned the services continued and the church stayed open and will never give up. He spoke also of Pastor Hamid who was arrested soon after he was himself released and whose trial is imminent. It is expected he will be sent to prison despite the falseness of the charges against him. Speaking of his time in prison he said it was best not to say for the prison was a place of great darkness, pain and sorrow, in which great evil takes place!
Finally
in this session we heard from Bishop Songulashvili Malkhaz of
Georgia and were shown pictures of the Baptist Centre receiving refugees in the
capital city Tblisi.
Bishop Malkhaz spoke of the four wars Georgia has faced over
the last fifteen years in a country smaller than Scotland due to the important
geo-political location of the country.
He explained that historically in 1773 a treaty of friendship with Russia was signed to provide support against Muslim incursions but
this led instead to Russian dominance of the country, the end of
independence and the suppression of Georgian Orthodoxy by Russian
Orthodoxy. The 1918 October Revolution
gave Georgia brief independence but by 1921 it was again a part of the Soviet
Empire. Independence came again
following the breakup of the Soviet Union and Georgia adopted a democratic form
of government but its geo-political situation has not changed and that major
oil pipelines from the East pass through Georgia. It is control of these oil pipelines that
lies behind the recent incursions.
Whilst the scale of the attack was surprising it had been anticipated by
Georgians for some time. On a personal
level Bishop Malkhaz found his basic precept of faith being
challenged especially the Gospel message ‘not to be afraid.’ He spoke of his personal agony as a challenge
directly by the arch-enemy himself, and his hatred for the Russian leaders, but
also of his journey of faith through these dark days to a place where though
little has changed he feels able to say again to his people ‘do not be afraid
and do not hate!’ The situation on the
ground remains very difficult with the activities of Russian backed
para-military groups in the buffer zones terrorizing the local
populations. Deaths, murders,
kidnappings and other atrocities remain daily occurrences.
Let
me begin with a word on the end of day two.
Around the Council meetings during the breaks many other meetings take
place and in some respects this is the real business of the Council. One such meeting involved the leaders of the
EBF and of the Georgian and Russian Unions which was reported back to the
Council because of the measure of unity that was attained at the meeting. As a result a special communion service was
arranged for the Council which was led by Bishop Malkhaz
on Friday evening. It would help to
understand as the pictures show that Georgian Baptists prompted by a desire to
be culturally relevant in their very strong Orthodox country have adopted forms
of worship and liturgy that to an extent mirror Georgian Orthodoxy. So brother Malkhaz is known within Georgia as Bishop Malkhaz , their priests wear robes similar to Orthodox
priests, they use icons as part of their worship and the celebrate the ‘Eucharist’ at all
their service. However they take their
relevance into the modern age, as their priests are both male and female (in fact
they have a large number of female priests); their robes are bright, colourful
and often covered by beautiful modern designs; their icons are not objects of
worship by pictoral parables and they preach the
Gospel of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
In this way they conform, challenge and connect with their people very
effectively.
Their
form of Eucharist is in our terms somewhat high church and in the UK we have,
as Baptists, become much more open to experiencing different forms of
worship. However, for some of our
brothers and sisters especially from Eastern Europe and the Middle East such
forms of worship are too closely associated with state churches that are
responsible for their persecution, or they are the churches so dead in
tradition that they have journeyed away from and rejected in becoming Baptists. Brother Malkhaz is
very conscious that the different path they have chosen is not always
appreciated by everyone in the EBF and so was not confident that many would
attend the Eucharist. The Eucharist
followed a shortened form and so lasted only 45 minutes but in the end so many
delegates attended it took much longer as the bread and wine were served
individually. Many of the words used
were ones with which we are very familiar and whilst I would not appreciate
having to attend such a service weekly it was on this occasion deeply moving.
EBF and Mission
Daniel Trusiewicz (Poland) reported on the Indigenous Mission Project (IMP) of the EBF which began in 2003 with four missioners but now supports around 80 missioners in Eastern Europe and the Middle East where over one hundred churches have been planted in twenty-four different nations. The first twenty missioners have now ended their term of support from the IMP and now must find their own support from within their country as the money used to support them is now free to support new works. A new church takes two years to plant effectively and if it survives for five years it is likely to have a long term future, hence the IMP offers five years of support to the missioners. Not only is supporting local missioners (Indigenous) a more cost effective way of doing mission than sending in foreign missionaries all the evidence suggests that this is the most spiritually effective way of doing mission. So far all of the churches planted are continuing their mission but of the twenty who no longer receive financial support only five have become self-funding, Pastors of the other churches have had to find other means support in order to continue in ministry.
Hans Guderian
(Germany) reported on the work of the European Baptist Mission (EBM) – the
European equivalent of BMS World Mission.
Though Europe based it has member Unions from Africa, Asia and Latin
America. In becoming partners with EBM
each Union undertakes to promote the work of the EBM and to see the EBM as the
principal organisation to which it will direct those with a call to the Mission
Field. He spoke of the need for
traditional missions to understand they are now in a place to see their work
not as bestowing largesse but sharing and partnering and most of their workers
are indigenous missionaries. One of the
most peaceful countries in Africa is Malawi where EBM missionaries have had
such strong influence over the years that the face that appears on every
bank-note produced in the country is that of a Baptist Pastor named John Chilembwe. EBM also
supports churches and missionaries in many countries such as Argentina, South
Africa, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon which has been the largest mission field for
EBM but which has now become a supporting member Union of EBM, Cuba
Germany
is one of the major financial supporters of the EBM and supplies many of the
foreign missionaries serving with EBM but in recent years EBM have also sent
missionaries into Germany from places like Sierra Leone to work amongst people
from that country now living in Germany.
The EBM have now moved to new premises enabled because following the
reunification of Germany the original property of the EBM in East Germany,
which had been taken over by the Soviet Union as a military base, has now been
returned to the EBM. A one hundred year
old seed that has finally borne fruit!
EBF Expands
Finally, we heard of the desire of the Palestinian Evangelical (Baptist) Council of Churches represented by their Chairman Pastor Munir Kakish to become a member Union of the EBF. They are a group of eleven churches who are mostly Baptist but it was felt that the Pentecostal churches who are members of the PECC should also be allowed to join the EBF. There are another eleven Ministries (children’s homes etc.) associated with the PECC as well as the highly important Bethlehem Bible College. Pastor Kakish spoke of the difficulties that the forgotten Christians of Palestine face, caught between two warring factions, both of which in the name of Jesus Christ they profess to love. In a short DVD we were introduced to the problems faced by Palestine’s Baptists including difficulties of movement made worse by the construction of the wall which has decimated the economy in many Christian towns. The schools, hospitals and children’s homes operated by churches on the West Bank for over 60 years are all threatened by the wall. Many of the current Pastors in Israel’s churches were former residents of the children’s homes. In Ramallah the growth of the ministry of the Baptist Church means they are desperately seeking new premises to facilitate the rapidly expanding church. Pastor Kakish also revealed to us that there is a very large underground Muslim church in the West Bank that he believes will soon emerge which is being served by the Baptist Pastors of Palestine. This application was fully supported by the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel as we heard from Pastor Azar Ajaj from Nazareth Baptist Church who over coffee on the first morning insisted that when I visited Israel I should come and visit with him and his family.
EBF
Appointments
After coffee the Council was asked to
reappoint for a further five years Tony Peck as General Secretary of the EBF
which was duly done unanimously acknowledging the strong and wise leadership he
has brought to the EBF.
In acknowledgment of the toll taken by his years of service the delegates from Turkmenistan on behalf of the Council made a special presentation to Tony as pictured on the left.
The
final act of the Council was a time of prayer in which we were able to pray for
each other before leaving for our homes and churches across Europe and the
Middle East.
Amsterdam 2009
In 1607/08 Thomas Helwys a wealthy Nottingham man enabled his dissenting congregation Pastored by John Smyth to flee to Amsterdam from persecution in England. There they made the journey from Dissenters to Baptists and in 1609 formally constituted themselves as the World’s first Baptist Church in. From July 24th to July 26th the EBF invites all to join them in Amsterdam to celebrate the founding of a movement, to which we all belong, and which now has spread across the globe with 100 million worshippers worldwide. Further information is available on the website www.amsterdam400.org.
Next year in Amsterdam!
Clive Jarvis