Baptist Briefs

Posted: 5/25/07

Baptist Briefs

Latin American Baptists elect president. The Union of Baptists in Latin America’s Executive Committee unanimously elected Raquel Contreras as UBLA president during a recent meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She will serve as president until April 2009. Contreras recently was re-elected president of the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Chile, composed of 27,781 members and 326 churches. Under her leadership, the union reconciled with the Convention of Baptist Churches of the Chilean Mission after 30 years of division and conflict between the two groups. UBLA is one of six regional bodies of the Baptist World Alliance and represents conventions and unions throughout South America, Central America and Mexico. Contreras is a BWA vice president and a member of the BWA Executive Committee and General Council, as well as several committees.

Heritage & History Society to present awards. The Baptist Heritage & History Society will honor a church historian, a student, a denominational entity, a state convention executive and three ministers at an awards luncheon scheduled in conjunction with its annual meeting, June 7-9 in Campbellsville, Ky. Bill Leonard, founding dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School, will receive the W.O. Carver Distinguished Service Award, the society’s highest honor, for his career contributions to Baptist history. Bonnie Oliver, a religion student at Memphis Theological will receive the Norman W. Cox Award for the best article published by the society in 2006—“The Life and Times of Barbara Jordan: A Twentieth-Century Baptist and Political Pioneer.” The North American Baptist Heritage Commission in Sioux Falls, S.D., will receive the Davis C. Woolley Award for outstanding achievement in assessing and preserving Baptist history. James Porch, executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, will receive the Carolyn Blevins Meritorious Service Award in recognition of his leading the Tennessee Baptist Convention to provide complimentary office space for the society. In cooperation with the H. Franklin Paschall Chair of biblical studies and preaching at Belmont University in Nashville, the society also will present the 2007 winners of the Baptist Heritage Preaching Contest. The first-place winner is Brent Jones, a Baptist minister and doctoral student in American history at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; the second-place winner is Steve Hollaway, pastor of Latonia Baptist Church in Covington, Ky.; and the third-place winner is J. Adam Tyler, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Buckingham, Va.

Wellness walk planned for San Antonio. GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention will sponsor its annual wellness walk/run during the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in San Antonio June 12. Walkers will gather at 6:15 a.m. at the Alamo Street entrance to HemisFair Park, adjacent to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and within walking distance from most hotels in the Riverwalk area. The first 500 registered walkers to stop by the Wellness Walk booth at the convention center will receive a free T-shirt. There will be a one-mile and 5K course for both runners and walkers. Start times will begin at 6:30 a.m. and will be staggered for runners and walkers. Healthful refreshments will be served to all participants at the end of the walk. Interested individuals can register online at www.GuideStone.org or by calling (888) 984-8433. Registered walkers can pick up their numbers at the Wellness Walk booth at the convention center. The booth will be located near the convention registration area June 10, and at the GuideStone Wellness Center on the exhibit floor on June 11.