Social Justice News

Interfaith Leaders from around the world gathered in Winnipeg June 21-23 to press G8 leaders to meet their commitments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2010.

Read the Interfaith Leaders Summit Statement here
Read the CBM response here

Alberta News

Photo courtesy of thglobeandmail.com

Southeastern Alberta was drenched with 150 mm of rain on the Father’s Day weekend, followed by another 30 mm a few days later. The rains have raised the water levels of the rivers and caused more than 600 families to evacuate their homes. It closed a 60 km stretch of Highway 1 between Medicine Hat and the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

Damage to homes and farmland is expected to be in the millions and six communities have been declared disaster areas. The extend of the damage will only become known once the rain waters recede.

Fortunately, Heights Baptist, the Canadian Baptist church in the area, is, as its name implies, on high ground. ”We’ve not been affected at all and haven’t had any calls from members of the church or the community for help,” said Art Hildebrand, the senior pastor at Heights.

The intense rains in the semi-desert area around Medicine Hat are highly unusual. Medicine Hat is the sunniest city in Canada with weather that is usually very hot and dry.

CBWC News

Our sister denomination, the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec have ratified the appointment of Tim McCoy as their Executive Minister at their annual meeting, in June.

Rev. Ted Searle, President of CBOQ, believes that, "Tim brings to this position outstanding leadership capabilities and proven experience in working together with leaders and churches in responding to the challenges of Christian witness in this age. His visionary leadership as Director of our Convention's vital youth ministry uniquely positions him to bring the next generation of leaders along with him in this new role.  I believe he is the person God has called to lead our Convention into this next decade."

Read more on this after the link.

CBWC Announcement

The Board of Directors of Canadian Baptists of Western Canada is very pleased to announce they have reappointed Jeremy Bell as Executive Minister for another 5 years. His second term will extend to June, 2015.

“Jeremy was hired 5 years ago because he has a great ability to dream outside the box. He has great visioning skills,” said Jan Paasuke, the Board Chair. “Over the past 5 years, he has put many new initiatives into play, such as Listening Sessions, urban camping and local short-term missions as something separate from CBM. He has shown he has the ability to move us in a different direction and be more effective in the future.”

“He has laid the groundwork for the future over the last 5 years. He has an amazing tenaciousness with ideas. So much of the new things we are doing are his ideas even in a time when a lack of finances has forced us to live inside the box more than we would like,” said Jan. “Now we are ready to see what is outside the box and his skills as a visionary will really come into play.”

Read more on this after the link.