We are pleased to share with you the entire set of Resolutions, Manifestos, Messages and Proclamations approved by delegates attending the Baptist World Alliance World Congresses from 1905 through 2015 (the 2020 Congress was postponed to 2021 due to the global pandemic).
Additionally, we are offering the Resolutions and Manifestos approved by the BWA General Council, which meets yearly. The online collection includes the years 1976-2019. The BWA Executive Committee Resolutions are currently being compiled, and a limited number are already accessible. The collection will be expanded over time.
Each Resolution document is in PDF format and seeks to reproduce the original text as closely as possible. This means that language and punctuation may be archaic and not in accordance with contemporary standards of discourse. Spellings of words sometimes are in British English and have been preserved as they were originally published. I am solely responsible for any typographical errors in reproduction, and I would deeply appreciate it if you would share with me any that you may discover.
It is the BWA’s hope that this collection will be useful to scholars, historians, denominational leaders, and clergy. Each document now contains a unique identification number, topical keywords, and four types of citations for academic purposes.
The range of issues covered by the collection is comprehensive, and many of the Resolutions speak to contemporary concerns (such as racism, antisemitism, poverty and war) with multi-cultural wisdom, spiritual integrity, and intellectual depth. Readers seeking to learn how Baptists on a global scale and across time have addressed the human condition in all of its variations (moral, social, economic, political, etc.) will be rewarded as well as challenged.
In Baptist polity, Resolutions and other collective statements are not binding on Baptist individuals or churches. They intend to share wisdom and raise consciousness rather than to demand or coerce conformity or hinder the soul freedom and responsibility of people to follow God according to the dictates of their own Christ-led conscience. In the foreword to the 1955 Golden Jubilee World Congress Official Report (p. 6), BWA General Secretary Arnold T. Ohrn stated this principle well:
If you should need any further assistance in utilizing this online historical archive, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. Lee B. Spitzer,
BWA Historian (Click here to contact)
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Resolution of Thanks
Resolution of Thanks
127. The President introduced Dr. Clifton Gray, who moved the following resolution, which was unanimously accepted:
“The Baptist World Alliance gratefully records its deep sense of obligation to many individuals and organizations as well as to the citizens of Atlanta as a whole for the magnificent cooperation which has helped to make this Sixth Baptist World Congress
Resolution on Race Relations
“Race relations is one of the perplexing problems which the Christian Church must face in the world to- day. There are many conditions and attitudes which strain and impair human relations and cause great concern; but we cannot solve the problem unless we face it forthrightly as Christians.
Resolution concerning the Jews
“Aware of the unprecedented suffering through which the people of Israel have passed during recent years, millions of them being exterminated by the most inhuman means; aware also that these sufferings are not yet at an end, but that hundreds of thousands are still in concentration camps or wandering homeless from land to land; aware, further, that the poisonous propaganda and destructive designs of anti- Semitism are still at work in many lands: this Congress puts on record its sense of sorrow and shame that such conditions prevail.
Resolution on Displaced Persons
BWA World Congress Resolution 1947.4 “This B.W.A. Congress at Copenhagen, assembled from many lands and representing many peoples, deeply concerned at the condition of the D.P.’s in many camps in Germany, Austria, and other countries, remembering that those who...
Resolution of Thanks
“Baptists in every land join with their fellow-Christians in the prayer that peace, both just and abiding, may come soon to the hearts of all mankind. To that end, we hail with hope two recent developments:
First, war has been defined and declared as a crime against society. Second, the founding of United Nations as a medium of interpreting and guaranteeing the right basis for effective expression of the common desire of all right-thinking people to enjoy life, liberty, and happiness.
International Peace
The members of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Stockholm, recognize with thankfulness that there are many signs of hope on the far horizon, in spite of the fact that the war spirit is still at work among the nations. The sense of the horror and wickedness of war has burnt itself deeply into the heart and conscience of all the members of our churches.
Resolution on Peace
Whereas the Baptist World Alliance in 1934, 1939, 1947 and 1950 has already declared itself unalterably opposed to racial discrimination in every form; and
Whereas, in this Congress of the Baptist World Alliance representatives have gathered from more than sixty countries representing many nationalities and races;
Resolution on Race Relations
Whereas the Baptist World Alliance in 1934, 1939, 1947 and 1950 has already declared itself unalterably opposed to racial discrimination in every form; and
Whereas, in this Congress of the Baptist World Alliance representatives have gathered from more than sixty countries representing many nationalities and races;
Evangelism
The Congress rejoices in the spontaneous action of a number of its members in gathering for an informal conference on Evangelism, receives with high appreciation the suggestions and recommendations which they have put forward, and refers them to the Executive Committee for sympathetic consideration and consultation.
Racialism
BWA World Congress Resolution 1939.5 The Sixth Baptist World Congress, assembled in Atlanta, Ga., is constrained to express the judgment of Baptist people in general on the question of race relationship. The members rejoice that the preparations for the present...
Temperance (1939)
BWA World Congress Resolution 1939.4 This assembly of the Baptist World Alliance declares that the sale and use of intoxicants increase crime, waste national resources, corrupt social habits, and are inimical to the welfare of individuals and of society, and should...
Racialism
163. Professor A.T. Ohrn, Norway, moved the following Resolution on “Racialism”
“This Congress representing the world-wide, inter-racial fellowship of Baptists, rejoices to know that despite all differences of race, there is in Christ an all-embracing unity, so that in Him it can be claimed with deepest truth there is ‘neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all in all.’
Centenary Appreciation for Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“In the centenary year of the birth of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Baptist World Congress recalls with gratitude and praise the mighty preacher whose God-given powers have been exercised for the healing of the nations, and who “being dead yet speaketh.” Spurgeon gloried supremely in the Cross of Christ, and turned multitudes to his Saviour. Large-hearted and practical, he responded to the appeal of human need, and the Gospel he preached was illustrated by the Orphanage he founded.
War
“The international misunderstandings, jealousies and rivalries which have followed the last Great War have baffled every effort to secure general disarmament. The preparation of munitions of war is a commercial interest. There is through-out the World a growing sense of insecurity because of the failure thus far to establish an effective commonwealth of nations possessing the authority and the means for redressing and preventing international injustice.
Resolution of Thanks
BWA World Congress Resolution 1934.9 187. The Honorary Associate Secretary, Dr. Clifton D. Gray, in speak-ing to the subject, “What this Congress has accomplished,” moved the following Resolution of Thanks on behalf of the Resolutions Committee, with particular...
Church and State
171. The Rev. Gilbert Laws, England, moved the following Resolution on “Church and State”:
“The members of this Congress believe that the Church is the company of the people of Christ with the Lord Himself according to His promise in the midst of them, and that He by His Spirit guides them into all Truth and makes plain to them the Will of God for them.
Resolutions on Commission Reports
(i) This Congress has received with high appreciation the report of Commission No. 1, on the subject “What Baptists Can Do to Avert War and Promote Peace,” and commends its contents to Baptists throughout the World for study and action.
Rumania (1939)
This Baptist World Congress has learned with satisfaction that, through the action of the Prime Minister, the Rumanian Baptist Churches, which were last year closed as the effect of repressive administrative orders issued by the Minister of Cults, have throughout the larger part of the land been re-opened. The Congress has also learned of the issue of a new administrative decree whose terms are less severe than those of earlier decrees.
Russia
The members of this Sixth Baptist World Congress, meeting in Atlanta, Ga., record their sorrow that it has been impossible for any representatives from the U. S. S. R. to participate in their assembly. They would desire, if it is possible to reach them, to assure the Baptists in those Republics of the prayerful and continuous sympathy of their fellow-believers throughout the World.
Renewal, Growth, Evangelism and Mission
BWA World Congress Resolution 2000.4 BWA World Congress Resolution 2000.4 Renewal, Growth, Evangelism and Mission The Baptist World Alliance Congress meeting in Melbourne Jan. 5-9, 2000 GIVES thanks to Almighty God for the boundless blessings God bestows; ACCEPTS...
Human Rights and Social Justice
The Baptist World Alliance Congress meeting in Melbourne, January 5-9, 2000
REAFFIRMS our abiding conviction previously expressed on numerous occasions that human rights are God-given and that violations of human rights are violations of the laws of God;
Appreciation
The Baptist World Alliance General Council, meeting in Vancouver, Canada, July 6-8, 2016:
ACKNOWLEDGES the profound challenges created in many parts of our world by the massive flow of refugees and displaced persons,
Kachin Crisis
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance meeting in Ocha Rios, Jamaica, July 1-6, 2013:
LAMENTS the atrocities occurring in Rakhine, Chin, Karen and Kachin states in Myanmar;
Resolution on Corruption
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Izmir, Turkey, July 9-11, 2014:
ACKNOWLEDGES that every human being is created in the image of God and thereby has an intrinsic
value to God and to the world (Genesis 1:26-27);
Christians at Risk of Persecution
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), meeting in Izmir, Turkey, July 9-11, 2014:
RECOGNIZES the very real dangers faced by many Christians in various parts of the world who experience intolerance and persecution from governments and authorities of different political, religious and ideological persuasions;
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