|PIC1|Baptists from around the world will gather in Amsterdam today for the start of a three-day celebration marking 400 years since the movement’s founding.
It was in 1609 that John Smyth and Thomas Helwys left persecution in England in search of the freedom to worship God according to their conscience in Amsterdam. What started out as just a few committed followers meeting in the backroom of a bakery has grown over the centuries into a worldwide movement of more than 110 million members Baptists.
The celebration will explore the movement’s historical beginnings and also seek to discern God’s calling on Baptists for the future in the areas of mission, community, freedom and discipleship.
The President of the Baptist World Alliance, the Rev David Coffey, will preach at the celebration service on Sunday.
He said Smyth and Helwys were a “powerful inspiration” for Baptists in today’s Europe where religious liberty is once again at risk.
“The liberty of the church to follow her Lord is under threat and we have to look now at how we were founded and what it is from our founding mothers and fathers we can take as an inspiration today,” he said.
The celebration is being hosted by the European Baptist Federation and will be immediately followed by the Baptist World Alliance’s annual gathering in Ede, which will also take stock of the last 400 years of Baptist history.
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