Baptists in Fiji

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There is evidence of Baptists in Fiji since the early 1970s. They are organized in two different Baptist community leagues. The older covenant is the Fiji Baptist Mission and the younger but larger one is the Fiji Baptist Convention . There are also independent local churches, for example the Baptist Bible Church and the Missionary Baptists .

history

With the independence of the island state of Fiji in 1970, the first Baptist missionaries came to the country. Among them was the Indian Niar Myran, who started the Fiji Baptist Mission immediately after his arrival and founded the first Baptist church in Lautoka as early as 1973 . More churches followed in Suva , Nadi and Ba . In 1984, the US Southern Baptists sent their first missionaries to Fiji to plant additional churches. In 1987 there was a separation among the island nation's Baptists. Three municipalities left the Fiji Baptist Mission (FBM) and founded together with the written around 1980 by then-independent Grace Baptist Church of Suva , the Fiji Baptist Convention (FBC), which the World Alliance of Baptists and its regional connection Asia Pacific Baptist Federation listened. In 1983 the Grace Bible College was founded , a training facility for volunteer and full-time employees.

In 1995 the FBM had three local parishes with a total of 200 members. in the FBC eight parishes with 466 members were united. An independent Baptist Bible Church comprised two congregations of unknown membership in Fiji. Another Baptist church, independent of the two unions, is in Nadi. Current figures are only known for the FBC. According to statistics from the Baptist World Federation , it had 19 congregations with a total of 952 baptized members in 2017 .

Web links

literature

  • Albert W. Wardin (Ed.): Baptists around the World. A Comprehensive Handbook. Broadman & HoHolman Publishers: Nashville / Tennessee (USA) 1995, ISBN 0-8054-1076-7 . P. 116 (article: Fiji [1973] )
  • Leonora Mosende Douglas (ed.): World Christianity: Oceania . Marc and Marc Europe: Monrovia 1986, p. 97

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the data and facts in this section are based on Albert W. Wardin (Ed.): Baptists around the World. A Comprehensive Handbook. Broadman & HoHolman Publishers: Nashville / Tennessee (USA) 1995, ISBN 0-8054-1076-7 . P. 116
  2. ↑ ABPF.org: APBF Member Bodies ; accessed on November 20, 2019
  3. ↑ BWAnet.org: Statistics ; accessed on November 20, 2019