Each year, Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Day recognizes the work of Baptists throughout the world. In 2015 the commemoration returns to its historic date of the second Sunday in February.
BWA, founded in 1905, is a fellowship of 231 conventions and unions in 121 countries and territories comprising 42 million members in 177,000 churches. Its priorities are nurturing the passion for missions and evangelism; promoting worship, fellowship and unity; responding to people in need; defending human rights and justice; and advancing relevant theological reflection.
BWA Day has been celebrated since 1927 when the BWA Executive Committee, meeting in London, asked BWA President Edgar Mullins and General Secretary John Rushbrooke to prepare a “special statement” to express clearly the purpose of the BWA. The statement emphasized that the BWA “seeks to express and promote unity and fellowship among the Baptists of the world.” A decision was made to introduce the observance of BWA Day in an effort to promote unity and fellowship.
The 2015 observance, set for February 7 or 8 depending on whether Baptists worship on Saturday or Sunday, also has an Alabama Baptist connection. The worship liturgy for BWA Day 2015 was written by Gary Furr, pastor of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Birmingham Baptist Association. Furr is a writer, poet, musician and teacher. He writes a blog on faith and music and the arts at www.garyfurr.org, and is co-author of “The Dialogue of Worship with Milburn Price.”
The worship resource for BWA Day 2015 explores the meaning and implications of Jesus Christ as the door to increased unity of purpose in global Baptist life. The liturgy includes Scripture, hymns, prayers and readings framed using the hermeneutic of “Ubuntu,” an African idea expressed as “I am what I am because of who we all are,” Furr writes in the introductory notes.
Whether the local church utilizes the worship guide or not, BWA Day is a day to emphasize Baptist fellowship and to pray for the work of Baptist entities around the world, said BWA General Secretary Neville Callam.
‘Celebrate our unity’
“I am convinced that the annual observance of BWA Day should represent an effort to build into the worship life of churches … an opportunity to celebrate our unity and our common witness and to intercede for one another. BWA Day also should advance Baptists’ knowledge of the worldwide Baptist family and its mission.”
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