BWA Unites with Mission Focus as Tensions Rise in Thailand Coup

The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) has issued a statement saying that the "September 18 coup in Thailand is a reminder of the world of conflict in which we live. Thankfully the military action appears to have been peaceful, with no deaths or injuries reported."

BWA President David Coffey and Director of Baptist World Aid, Paul Montacute, were in Thailand in mid-September, a week before the coup, and met many Baptists from Thailand and the Asian region.

"Although there was a certain level of anxiety about the recent election, and the lack of participation by the opposition, few appeared to be predicting this kind of action," said Montacute. "We must hope and pray that this action will not hinder much of the important work being undertaken by Baptists in Thailand, including the tsunami relief work in the south of the country."

|QUOTE|Coffey and Montacute, together with 325 Christians involved in relief and development work from over 52 countries, participated in the triennial conference sponsored by the Micah Network and held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 11 to 15 September. Fifty of the delegates to the conference were Baptists, many working for Christian agencies around the world, and many in areas of conflict.

The Micah Network is the world's largest network of evangelical Christian relief and development agencies. The Network consists of over 295 agencies and churches from 75 countries in both the developed and developing work.

The Network sponsors the Micah Challenge, a BWA-supported campaign to ensure that the Millennium Development goals are achieved by the United Nations and member governments. Many Baptists from around the world are supporting the campaign, and a large number of pastors in the USA have recently signed the 'Baptist Pastoral Letter Supporting the Micah Challenge' written by Robert Parham of Ethics Daily.

The conference was called to discuss the place of Integral Mission in a world filled with conflicts.

Elaine Storkey, President of Tear Fund UK, who led devotions at the conference, said, "In a world torn by conflict, local churches committed to bringing the radical love of Christ in word and deed in an integral way to their devastated communities have a unique potential to bring healing and reconciliation."

Coffey spoke on the church and community, arguing for a vulnerable church. "The vulnerable church is more open to receive God's vision for the future. The vulnerable church will go deeper in understanding the true nature of dissent, and this world needs dissenters. Christian dissent is dissenting from a way that is not the way of God for his world. This form of dissent calls the world to conform to God's ways for running his world."

New Zealand Baptist, Christopher D. Marshall, spoke on religious violence, terrorism and the peace of Christ. He argued for a terror-audit on Christianity which must address not only its past and contemporary history of violence, but also reconsider the moral validity of its two dominant ethical viewpoints on war - the Just War Theory and pacifism.

The most prophetic word of the event came from Australian Deborah Storie who said that "Mission does not begin when violence ends. Violent conflict is not the exception but the usual context in which people of God are called, and always have been called, to bless the earth. The question before us, then, is not, can we do integral mission in the midst of violence? But, how do we do it?"

Coffey and Montacute were able to visit the Baptist-run House of Love for infected and affected HIV/AIDS children as well as the compound of the Karen Baptist Convention to see the Bible school and the work of Tabita, a program of weaving and sewing for women.


For more information on the BWA, please visit: www.bwanet.org


[Source: BWA]