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 on Religious Freedom in Russia
The Baptist World Alliance General Council, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, July 5-7, 2017:
REAFFIRMS our historic Baptist commitment to religious freedom as a gift of God to all people, regardless of denomination or religion; and that this same commitment is enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18, to which the Russian Federation is a signatory;
Resolution on Violations of Religious Freedom in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region
The Baptist World Alliance General Council, meeting in Vancouver, Canada, July 6-8, 2016:
RENEWS its concern about the continuing humanitarian crisis in Nigeria previously addressed by a BWA resolution in 2012;
Situation in Ukraine
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Izmir, Turkey, July 9-11, 2014:
NOTES with concern that, in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine generally, the situation has led to increased religious persecution, especially against evangelical Christians;
Appendix II: Baptist World Alliance Resolutions Paper
1. The diverse worldwide Baptist family, represented through the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), is concerned about the contemporary religious, missional, social, cultural, political and economic issues that affect the global family.
2. One means of giving expression to the conclusions Baptists draw on issues of concern to them, and of bearing witness to this before the world, is through the preparation, adoption and sharing of resolutions proposed by member bodies, commissions, etc., for approval by the BWA General Council.
3. BWA’s approach to framing resolutions is informed by biblical teaching and predicated on Baptists’ trinitarian faith. The resolutions are shaped by the values and convictions generally affirmed by Baptists and are proposed by members of the Baptist family, or by the Resolutions Committee, which also considers, reviews and amends them where necessary for presentation to the General Council for consideration and possible adoption.
Resolution on Refugees in East Africa
The Baptist World Alliance General Council, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, July 5-7, 2017:
NOTES with appreciation the resolution titled “Ministry to Refugees” adopted by the General Council of the Baptist World Alliance meeting in Vancouver, Canada, July 6-8, 2016;
Stewardship of the Earth
We affirm that God is creator all life and as stewards of God’s earth, we members of the General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, August 1989, acknowledge the interdependence of all life. As stewards of God’s earth we are concerned for our global environment and threats to its delicate balance—today and for the future.
El Salvador
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica, July 4-12, 19922;
HAVING received a report from the Baptist World Alliance Human Rights Delegation to El Salvador in January, 1992, and also from our Baptist sisters and brothers in that troubled country;
Toxic Waste
God created earth— air, land and sea. Because we are stewards of Planet Earth, we Christians, along with all people of good will, are disturbed by the pollution of land, air and sea. It is profoundly distressing that nations are reported to be dumping nuclear waste onto the soil of developing nations.
Illicit Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Addictive Chemical Substances
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in the Bahamas, July 1988:
Gives thanks to God for the comfort and well being brought to multitudes through the medical use of drugs;
Views with alarm the tragic growth of illicit drug trafficking, the subsequent victimizing of vast numbers of people, especially youth, through these addictive substances and the resulting explosion of drug-related crises;
1994 International Year of the Family
ACKNOWLEDGES the actions of Baptists in our own generation in championing religious freedom for all people, especially those who find themselves in a minority situation;
VIEWS WITH ALARM the denial of the right of religious liberty to minority groups such as evangelicals in Bulgaria, Albania, Iran, Ethiopia and the republics of Central Asia, Christians in China, Indonesia and East Timor; and to the Coptic Orthodox and other Christians in Egypt;
The AIDS Crisis
As the General Council of the Baptist World Alliance meets in Nassau, the Bahamas, July 1988, the AIDS crisis continues to escalate on a global scale.
The 16,000 cases of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) reported in 1985 are now nearly 75,000 in 129 countries.
Children
Children have been tortured, sentenced to death, recruited into armed service and physically abused.
THEREFORE, this General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, August 1989,
Families
WHEREAS the family remains the God-ordained mainstay of society, as well as the center of intimacy and commitment for significant, ongoing relationships, and
WHEREAS many alternative lifestyles are replacing traditional family structures and roles in numerous cultures throughout the world, and
The Former Yugoslav Federal Republic
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica, July 4-12, 1992;
MINDFUL of the devastation and loss of life wrought by the recent and continuing conflicts in the countries of the former Yugoslav Federal Republic, and in accordance with its belief that God in Christ wills reconciliation in place of enmity;
Sexual Morality
WHEREAS, humanity everywhere is undergoing a revolution in sexual morality as evidenced by changing mores, promiscuity, marital infidelity and a preoccupation of the media and advertising with a crass commercialization of sex, and
Women
We celebrate the multiple gifts and sensitivities women bring to the service of Jesus Christ and the work of the Baptist family around the world.
Women make up approximately two-thirds of the membership of the church. In society at large, opportunities for the involvement of women are increasing in government, social, economic and educational areas.
Rwanda and Burundi
COMMENDS with appreciation the Baptist Heads of Denominations and its secretary, the Rev. Noah Pashapa, for the invaluable and gracious assistance given to the BWA staff in planning and organizing this first-ever BWA gathering in Southern Africa;
Prisoners of Conscience
The BWA General Council, meeting in Singapore, July 1986:
1. notes the vast number of people, both men and women, who are in prison, whose only “crime” has been the conscientious expression of different political views of the proclamation of the Christian Gospel;
World Hunger (1986)
WHEREAS, estimates of the number of chronically hungry people range from 500 million to one billion, from one-eighth to one-fourth of the world’s population; and
South Africa (1993)
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe August 6-9, 1993,
SENDS greetings to our sisters and brothers in the Baptist and wider Christian community in South Africa;
APPLAUDS the decision to hold multi-racial elections with universal adult suffrage in 1994;
Bosnia
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe August 6-9, 1993,
CONDEMNS the deliberate use within the former Republic of Yugoslavia of “ethnic cleansing” and the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war and extends its heart-felt sympathy to the hundreds of thousands of victims;
Hostages
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Amman, Jordan, July 5-12, 1987, affirms its belief:
— that all human beings are created by God;
— that human life is sacred and of value to God;
The Millennium of Christianity in Russia
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Amman, Jordan, July 5-12, 1987, expresses its joy at the forthcoming celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of Christianity in Russia in 1988 and gives God thanks for the contribution of Russian Christians to the world church.
Peacemaking
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance has often addressed peace issues, most recently in 1985 and 1986. Again in 1988, as the Council meets in the Bahamas, we:
Reaffirm previous resolutions that have spoken to peace with disarmament and peace with justice, and
Welcome the completion of the treaty calling for the elimination of intermediate range nuclear equipped missiles for the United States of America and the USSR and encourage work toward understandings which will lead to the reduction of all levels of military forces.
South Africa
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Nassau, the Bahamas, July 1988:
Reaffirms its resolution dealing with apartheid adopted at its meeting in Los Angeles in 1985, and
Urges the Baptist Union and the Baptist Convention of Southern Africa to challenge the evil of apartheid by their own example of reconciliation and full equality within their own churches and the extended Christian family as well as their society.
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