BWA Heritage and Identity Commission - 400th anniversary 1609-2009 Amsterdam

1609 - 2009

Celebrating 400 years of Baptist Life and Witness

Amsterdam, 2009

300608

The BWA Heritage and Idenity plans to make a special focus at its 2009 meeting on the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the first Baptist witness. The meeting will be held in Amsterdam at the time of the BWA General Council meetings there in honour of this event.

	This page and others will be developed over time in association with the 400th anniversary. Contributions of relevant material (text, graphics, links etc) are welcome and invited.
Martin Luther King Baptist Church Amsterdam with Australian BWA Touring Party 1975	Please contact the webmaster and the Commission chair.

	"A Unique Blend of Freedom and Community" By Bruce T. Gourley
	Some ten to twelve generations ago, the Baptist faith emerged in Holland in the form of exiled Puritan Separatists in 1608-1609. Over the next eighteen months, modern Baptists will celebrate the 400th anniversary of their common heritage, a celebration that will take the form of heritage tours, special book releases, historical emphases within some local congregations and Baptist groups, and featured articles within journals, including the Baptist Studies Bulletin. It is only fitting to celebrate four centuries of a Christian people whose early years were so filled with persecution that their continued existence was questionable. That well over 100 million Baptists exist in the early twenty-first century is testimony to the staying power of the beliefs initially shared by the handful of earliest Baptists living in exile and uncertainty in the early seventeenth century. And yet a survey of modern Baptists reveals something unsettling: many are not faithful to their own denominational heritage. While some are simply unaware of the Baptist legacy, others have wandered down paths studiously avoided by previous generations of Baptists. At their simplest, the earliest historical Baptist convictions could be summarized as a unique blend of freedom and community under the Lordship of Christ. The original freedom fighters, the early Baptists insisted upon freedom of conscience, religious freedom for all persons, separation of church and state, freedom from creeds and the individual's free access to God. Advocating voluntary community and local church autonomy, the earliest Baptists limited church membership to regenerate believers who expressed personal faith and participated in believer's baptism. The freedoms and community claimed by early Baptists were lightening rods at a time in history when the only Western models of government entailed alliances with religious entities that dictated state religions, all other churches were hierarchical in nature, and infant baptism served as the entryway into church membership. For their radical beliefs, Baptists were persecuted by theocratic states on both sides of the Atlantic for most of their first two centuries of existence. Yet in a twist of historical irony, the foundational heritage of freedom and community and nearly-two centuries of attendant persecution has been forgotten, discarded, neglected and/or distorted in many twenty-first century Baptist circles, at the very time that Baptists face some of the greatest challenges and opportunities experienced since the eighteenth century. This century is already characterized by the numerical decline of Southern Baptists and stagnation for North American Baptists as a whole, while African-American Baptists and those of the earth's southern hemisphere experience notable growth and European Baptists evidence signs of revival. Concurrent with these trends, many conservative to fundamentalist Baptists in America now reject separation of church and state, seek special privileges in the public square for Christians who share their theology, and scoff at freedom of conscience. At the same time, some moderate Baptists in America have tilted the historical Baptist blend of convictions in such a way as to bury freedom under an avalanche of hierarchical community. In short, not only will some modern Baptists avoid recognition of four centuries of faith heritage in the coming months, but some will continue an ongoing campaign to dismantle or reconstruct the faith of their spiritual forefathers. At this 400-year point, the future of the faith handed down from the early Baptists lies in the hands of those Baptists in North America and around the world who are not afraid to hold aloft and celebrate the unique blend of freedom and community that first surfaced among a handful of persecuted believers and survived despite severe opposition.
	Courtesy Baptist Studies Bulletin June 2008
	Baptists hope 400th anniversary will inspire vision for movement's future Nearly 2,000 Baptists are expected to gather for 400th anniversary of the birth of the Baptist movement in 2009. by Jenna Lyle ChristianToday Posted: Sunday, February 24, 2008, 19:55 (GMT)
	Preparations are already underway for celebrations in 2009 to mark 400 years of the world Baptist movement, which organisers are stressing will not only look at the achievements of the past, but also set out the vision that will ensure the movement’s successful stride into the future. Four hundred years have passed since the movement’s founding fathers – refugees from England – gathered in the backroom of an Amsterdam bakery in 1609 to read the Bible together. That small gathering became the first Baptist-minded congregation and the European Baptist Federation (EBF) anticipates that 1,700 Baptists from across Europe alone will turn out from 24 to 26 July 2009 to celebrate the occasion, slated “Amsterdam 400”. With an expected cost of 300,000 euros, the EBF is urging all 52 member unions to participate in a large-scale fundraising drive that will allow Baptists from less wealthy countries to attend. EBF General-Secretary Tony Peck and Financial Chairman Jan Saethre (Siljan/Norway) have already addressed a financial appeal to the member unions reminding them of the commitment they made at the EBF-Council sessions in Budapest last September to contribute one euro per member towards the cost of the conference. Peck and Saethre are also requesting that union leaders press home the fundraising drive to their congregations. “We are of course aware that one euro per member is too much for some unions,” they said. Each union that cannot manage the ‘one-euro-per-member’ donation is being encouraged to consider a one-off contribution of their own choosing in order to help keep costs down and cover the travel expenses of some participants. There are more than 100 million Baptists worldwide, around 800,000 of which are in Europe and the Middle East, making them the world’s largest Protestant denomination. The Dutch Union has some 11,500 members worshipping in 85 congregations.
	http://www.amsterdam400.org/

	NEW BOOK ON BAPTIST WOMEN DEACONS AND DEACONESSES WOMEN DEACONS AND DEACONESSES: 400 YEARS OF BAPTIST SERVICE http://www.cwlc.us/templates/cuscwlc/details.asp?id=28589&PID=248372

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