Ngwedla Paul Msiza of South Africa has been elected president of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). Msiza and 12 vice presidents were elected by the BWA general council, which convened during the annual gathering held in Izmir, Turkey, July 6–12.
Msiza will take office at the conclusion of the 21st Baptist World Congress in Durban, South Africa, in July 2015, succeeding John Upton of the United States.
Actively involved
He is the second African elected to the BWA presidency. William Tolbert, of Liberia, was BWA president from 1965 to 1970.
Msiza has been actively involved in the BWA since 2000. He sits on several committees and is chair of the local arrangements committee for the upcoming Baptist World Congress. The congress is normally held every five years and is the largest international gathering for Baptists.
Msiza was trained at the Hebron Teacher Training College and worked bivocationally as a pastor and schoolteacher from 1988 until he became founding principal of the Baptist Convention College in 1995. From there he became Baptist Convention of South Africa general secretary.
He has served as pastor of Peniel-Salem Baptist Church, Pretoria, South Africa, since 2011.
In other news, general secretary Neville Callam was re-elected by the BWA general council.
Callam, a Jamaican, became the first person who is neither North American nor European to lead BWA as general secretary when he was elected in 2007. His new term runs from 2015 to 2020.
(BWA)
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