wfn.org | AMERICAN BAPTIST News--Jan 29, 1996

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.apc.org>]

American Baptist News Service_____________________
PRESS RELEASE
Office of Communication / American Baptist Churches
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 /
Email: RICH_SCHRAMM.parti@ecunet.org
Richard W. Schramm, Director______________________________________________

News Wrap-Up__________________________________January 29, 1996

NEWS FEATURE
AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES' BIENNIAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE
AFFIRMS 'RENEWED FOR MISSION: ROOTED IN GOD'S WORD' AS THEME
FOR 1997 BIENNIAL MEETING OF DENOMINATION IN INDIANAPOLIS
     The committee charged with planning the next
denomination-wide Biennial Meeting of American Baptist
Churches USA, to be held in June 1997 in Indianapolis, has
endorsed a theme of "Renewed for Mission: Rooted
in God's Word" and begun preliminary program planning for the
event.
     At its first sessions Jan. 26-28, the Biennial Program
Committee also toured the Indiana Convention
Center, which will house the meeting events.
     In establishing the theme for the gathering, the current
Committee is continuing the commitment of its
recent predecessors to lift up the longterm denominational
emphasis, "ABC 2000: Renewed for Mission," that
was launched in 1993.  Among supporting Scripture texts
identified by the Committee for the Indianapolis event
are Col. 2:6,7; Col. 3:16; I Peter 1:23-25 and Psalm 1:1-3.
     During its initial planning sessions, the Committee
established a goal for the 1997 Biennial Meeting:
"To provide an atmosphere in which we renew our commitment to
know, speak and live God's Word."  In
another action, the Committee confirmed as plenary speakers G.
Elaine Smith, American Baptist Churches USA
president, and Dr. Daniel E. Weiss, the denomination's general
secretary.
     Biennial Meetings of American Baptist Churches have provided
opportunities for fellowship, worship in
word and music, Bible studies, action on denominational business,
the election of officers and voting on
Statements of Concern, among other activities.  Program and
logistical planning for the 1997 Biennial Meeting
will continue when the Committee meets again in June in Green
Lake, Wis., and in December in the
Philadelphia area.
     The Biennial Program Committee is being chaired by Dr.
Beverly D. Scott of Orange, N.J., an educator
and former vice president of American Baptist Churches USA.
Other members include the Rev. Lemaire Alerte,
Jersey City, N.J.; M. Ingrid Dvirnak, Bismarck, N.D.; Brenda
Edwards, Tulsa, Okla.; the Rev. Randy Gauger
(American Baptist Churches USA vice president), Topeka, Kans.;
David I. Greenfield, Bloomington, Ill.;
Elizabeth Higgins, Broken Arrow, Okla; Ruth K. Housam, Lady Lake,
Fla.; Vernell E. Neely, Nashville, Tenn.;
the Rev. Helen A. Phillips, Fairbanks, Alaska; Thomas C. Ross
Jr., Brooklyn, N.Y.; the Rev. Jeffery L. Savage,
Springfield, Oreg.; G. Elaine Smith, Washington, D.C., and Dr.
Daniel E. Weiss, Valley Forge, Pa.
     Also involved in the planning were the Rev. Larry Sayre,
executive minister of the American Baptist
Churches of Greater Indianapolis; Dr. Eugene Ton, recently
retired executive minister of the American Baptist
Churches of Indiana; and Joseph Huse, chair of the Local
Arrangements Committee.  Dr. Paul Little, Redlands,
Calif., and Paul Baker, Los Angeles, are serving the Committee
respectively as program and music consultants.
Other ongoing support and resourcing for the planning is being
provided by a staff advisory group led by
Barbara A. Williams, American Baptist Churches associate general
secretary for Administrative Services.

                                   o

     o  Dr. A. George Downing, executive minister of the American
Baptist Churches of the Pacific
Southwest for 22 years, died Jan. 22 in Sun City, Ariz.  Downing
retired in 1978 following his leadership of the
region and its predecessor organization, the Southern California
Baptist Convention.  Prior to that, Downing was
director of Church Extension for the Southern California Baptist
Convention, and also held pastorates at
Immanuel Baptist Church in Long Beach, Calif., and at First
Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebr.  Downing visited
many areas of American Baptist mission work around the world, and
attended numerous gatherings of the Baptist
World Alliance.  Downing's wife, Dorothy, died Jan. 19 after a
long illness.  Memorial services for George and
Dorothy Downing were held Jan. 23 at Bellevue Heights Baptist
Church in Sun City.

     o  Leaders of the American Baptist-related National Council
of Churches of Christ and many other
religious bodies called on people throughout the U.S. to pause at
noon Thursday, Jan. 25, to pray for peace in
the former Yugoslavia, for the U.S. and other NATO peacekeepers,
and for all who provide charitable and
medical aid in Bosnia.  Churches were asked to toll their bells
for three minutes at noon.  Organizers of the
prayer effort offered the following prayer for use on Jan. 25:
"O Creator of all life, we remember before You
this day the pain and death that has marked the recent history of
the former Yugoslavia.  For some time it has
been a place of wounded bodies, wounded families and wounded
communities.  Today we ask Your divine
assistance to support and defend the military forces now
committed to a peacekeeping mission in these torn lands
and Your blessing on their efforts to bring peace and healing to
all peoples of the region.  We especially pray for
the protection of the children and the innocent of all faiths and
for those who provide medical aid, charitable
help and sanctuary for them.  In Your Holy name we pray.  Amen."
National Council of Churches General
Secretary Joan Brown Campbell asked the heads of the Council's 33
Protestant and Orthodox member
communions and their 51 million members to "find appropriate ways
to observe this within the practices of your
own traditions."  She prayed that all people on the ground in
Bosnia "may be held in God's safe embrace."

     o  The general secretary of the American Baptist-related
Baptist World Alliance has written a letter of
protest to the mayor of Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, complaining
that municipal authorities there have prevented
local Baptists from building an orphanage and church, despite
approval for construction granted by the Bulgarian
government.  The building project is the first for Baptists in
Bulgaria since the fall of communism in the late
1980s.  The country's Union of Baptist Churches includes 50
churches and 2,400 members.  European Baptist
Federation officials report that municipal authorities in Sofia
have registered "all kinds of objections why the
Baptists should not be allowed to build an orphanage."  "This
refusal to give permission to build is a religious
freedom issue," Dr. Denton Lotz, BWA general secretary, wrote to
Sofia mayor Stephan Sofiansky. "We had
thought with the fall of communism and the new freedom that has
come to Bulgaria that religious freedom
would be guaranteed for all people.  Baptists have pioneered
freedom for all people, regardless of ideology and
religion, and religious freedom includes freedom to build
sanctuaries for worship and projects of social concern."
Most Bulgarians are members of the Orthodox Church.  Baptists and
other Protestant groups in Bulgaria
are considered minority groups without full religious rights,
according to the BWA.

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