ABHMS Sponsors Events At ABCUSA 2011 Biennial In Puerto Rico

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ABHMS Sponsors Events At ABCUSA 2011 Biennial In Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (ABNS 6/27/11)?In its
events and activities at American Baptist
Churches USA (ABCUSA) 2011 Biennial Friday
through Sunday, American Baptist Home Mission
Societies (ABHMS) celebrated its tenets of
discipleship, community and justice and
spotlighted its new initiative to enlist passionaries for Christ.

ABHMS marked the opening of its booth in the
exhibit hall of the Puerto Rico Convention Center
Friday with Puerto Rican food and live music by
Pleneros de Loiza of Primera Iglesia Bautista de Mediania Alta.

Approximately 20 flags of Latino nations paraded
Saturday morning from the convention center?s
entry to the Latino pavilion sponsored by ABHMS,
Iglesias Bautistas de Puerto Rico, American
Baptist Hispanic Caucus and American Baptist
Latino Alliance. Featured in the pavilion were
multimedia presentations on the history and
current state of Latino American Baptist churches
in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The ABHMS pavilion Saturday featured discussion
with Tysha Sellers, executive director of Edna
Martin Christian Center, Indianapolis; Kelli
Foreman, summer/after school administrator/public
educator at Kodiak (Alaska) Baptist Mission; the
Rev. Yamina Apolinaris, executive director of
Corporacion Milagros del Amor, Caguas, Puerto
Rico; the Rev. Dr. Wungreiso Valui, senior pastor
of Fort Wayne (Ind.) Baptist Church; the Rev.
Adam Taylor, vice president of advocacy at World
Vision; and Sister Patricia A. Daly, O.P.,
executive director of the Tri-State Coalition for
Responsible Investment. Each talked about his or
her calling and received a certificate of
designation as a passionary for Christ.

?Everyone here has not been licensed, ordained or
commissioned,? said ABHMS Executive Director Dr.
Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III, noting that a
passionary is a ?person who has a passion to live
out his or her life according to Jesus Christ?
and ?exhibit the grace of God in spaces and
places where it has not yet been made manifest.?

At the ABHMS luncheon Saturday, the Rev. Susan
B.W. Johnson and the Rev. Zachary Mills took to
the podium to share about the obstacles overcome
while intentionally transforming their ministry
at Hyde Park Union Church, Chicago, into a multicultural, multiracial one.

?Prejudice and anxiety undermined the church?s
agenda,? recalls Johnson about the congregation
that now embraces its 21st century ministry and
has grown by 30 new members in the last two
years, despite its location in a low-income, high-crime neighborhood.

?Cultivating a strategy of play is fundamental,?
said Mills, noting that a trained improvisational
actor worked with the church?s staff to help them
?hear with a third ear and see with a third eye.?

At Saturday night?s worship, the 2011 Edwin T.
Dahlberg Peace Award was presented to the Rev.
Paul Hayes of Noank, Conn., for his service to
the Peace Commission of the Baptist World
Alliance, and to Beverly McNally of Pennington,
N.J., who was vice president of the Board of
National Ministries when she died on April 6, 2010.

?When I look at the names of previous award
winners, I?m humbled,? said Hayes. ?My role has
been in the background. I support another layer
of peacemakers. ?Waging peace in a society that
wages war is daunting, but in working for peace
we feel most like children of God,? continued Hayes.

Accepting on behalf of McNally were her husband,
the Rev. Thomas H. McNally, and daughters,
Heather McNally and Dawn McNally Cobb.

?Beverly believed deeply that all Christians
should be peacemakers,? said Thomas McNally,
noting that Beverly McNally was involved in the
fight to abolish the death penalty in New Jersey.
She believed, he said, in ?working with all
Christians to let the light of Christ shine through the darkness of the wor ld.?

Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr., an author, professor,
social justice advocate and pastor emeritus of
Allen Temple Baptist Church, Oakland, Calif.,
brought his message of ?Hope in Troubled Times?
to Sunday?s ?Discipleship, Community and Justice Breakfast.?

In addition to referencing the social activism of
the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson
Mandela, Smith mentioned several present-day
ministries that are addressing the racial divide
and promoting social justice in their communities.

?You and I ought to live as if the Kingdom of God
has already come,? he said. ?Hope moves us past
discouragement. Hope sustains us in defeat. Hope
provides us with joy and triumph. Hope reminds us
of God?s promises. Hope reminds us that God keeps his word.?
Immerse, the national gathering of American
Baptist youth, sponsored by ABHMS and slated for
July 2012 in Washington, D.C., was introduced at Sunday night?s worship.
At the pre-Biennial chaplaincy luncheon on
Thursday, Maj. Susan D. Caswell of the Defense
Equal Opportunity Management Institute, Patrick
Air Force Base, Fla., received the Military Chaplaincy Merit Award.

For photographs and more information about ABHMS
at the Biennial, visit the Web site at
www.abhms.org. To view the Immerse video
introduced at the conference, visit the Web site at www.abhms-immerse2012.o rg.

American Baptist Home Mission Societies?the
domestic mission arm of American Baptist Churches
USA?ministers as the caring heart and serving
hands of Jesus Christ across the United States
and Puerto Rico through a multitude of
initiatives that focus on discipleship, community and justice.

American Baptist Churches is one of the most
diverse Christian denominations today, with 5,500
local congregations comprised of 1.3 million
members, across the United States and Puerto
Rico, all engaged in God?s mission around the world.