Asia Pacific Baptist Federation
The Asia Pacific Baptist Federation (APBF) ( Asia-Pacific Baptist Federation ), formerly: Asian Baptist Federation , is one of the six regional subdivisions of the World Baptist Federation . In 2017, 57 national Baptist unions with around 47,000 local congregations and 5.2 million members belonged to it. The history of the APBF has its roots in the 1950s and was founded in Stockholm in 1975 .
history
The origins of the Asia-Pacific Baptist Federation go back to 1953. This year some young Asians met in Rio de Janeiro and decided to organize a Baptist youth meeting for the Asian region in Hong Kong . This international meeting took place on August 20, 1956 in the former British Crown Colony and is considered an important milestone on the way to the establishment of the Asian Federation, which did not take place until 19 years later.
The actual foundation was preceded by the appointment of a committee by the Twelfth Congress of the Baptist World Federation , which took place in Tokyo in 1970 . The committee included Daniel Cheung, David Wong and Hugh Smith from Hong Kong, Sam Choy from South Korea, Glen Gano from Japan, AE Masa from the Philippines, BR Mose from India, Alan Prior from Australia and Willie Wickramasinghe from Sri Lanka. In the following three years, Alan Prior, as head of the committee, visited many Baptist church communities and missions in Asia and introduced them to the idea of a federation in this region of the world. On December 1, 1974, a consultation meeting was held in Hong Kong, attended by over 50 delegates from 21 national Baptist churches. They decided to apply for the establishment of an "Asian Baptist Fellowship" at the Thirteenth Congress of the World Baptist Federation , which was to be held in Stockholm in 1975 . Congress accepted the motion and appointed Alan Prior , Vice President of the Baptist World Federation from 1960 to 1965, as the first secretary of the Asian Baptist Federation (as the regional organization was initially called). WG Wickramasinghe became the first president of the federation.
The following general secretaries have worked in the APBF so far : Alan Prior from Australia (1970–1980), Edwin Lopez from the Philippines (1980–1997), Bonny Resu from India (1997–2017). Vesekhoyi Tetseo from Japan has been in office since 2017. The current name of the regional association was decided in 2007 during the APBF Congress in Thailand . The aim was to take account of the expansion of the Federation towards Oceania and Australia,
Member churches
.jpg)
The Asia Pacific Baptist Federation has 57 member churches. The largest of these is the Myanmar Baptist Union, with almost one million members in 2017, spread across 5126 local congregations. The smallest association is the Macau Baptist Association with 750 members in six congregations. 22 different unions are based in India alone, five in the Philippines, four each in Japan and Thailand and three in Bangladesh.
organization
The most important body of the APBT is the so-called General Council ( General Council Meeting ) in which the member unions sent depending on the number of members deputies. The Council makes all important decisions, adopts the budget and elects the leadership of the World Federation regional association, the Executive Committee . At the head of the committee are the president and his deputy. Other members of the Executive Committee are the Secretary General and the Treasurer. The main work of the council and the executive takes place in the ten ministries , each of which is committed to specific areas (e.g. youth, evangelism, theological training and further education, women and men). Some of these minstries hold their own international gatherings. A general congress takes place every five years.
The seat of the Federation is in Okinawa ( Japan ).
Web links
literature
- William H. Brackney: Historical Dictionary of the Baptists . Volume 25 in the Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements series . The Scarecrow Press, Inc .: Lanham, Maryland, and London 1999. ISBN 0-8108-3652-1 . P. 27
Individual evidence
- ↑ APBF.org: Our Background ; accessed on November 20, 2019
- ↑ This section is based, unless otherwise noted, on APBF.org: The History of APBF ; accessed on November 20, 2019
- ^ William H. Brackney: Historical Dictionary of the Baptists . Volume 25 in the Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements series . The Scarecrow Press, Inc .: Lanham, Maryland, and London 1999. p. 27
- ↑ Web archive / BWAnet.org: Asian Federation changes name, elects new leadership ; accessed on November 20, 2019
- ↑ BWAnet.org: Statistics (Asia Pacific) ; accessed on November 20, 2019
- ^ William H. Brackney: Historical Dictionary of the Baptists . Volume 25 in the Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements series . The Scarecrow Press, Inc .: Lanham, Maryland, and London 1999. p. 27
- ↑ APBF.org: Ministries ; accessed on November 22, 2019
- ^ William H. Brackney: Historical Dictionary of the Baptists . Volume 25 in the Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements series . The Scarecrow Press, Inc .: Lanham, Maryland, and London 1999. p. 27