Movements and Changes

United States

James Perkins, elected president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, succeeding Carroll Baltimore Sr.

Thanks

Clifton and Cara Ward

Clara Lee Ward, a longtime friend and supporter of the BWA, died on June 23. Clifton Ward died in 1992. 

Baptist work in Indonesia began in 1952. The Union of Indonesian Baptist Churches (UIBC) was formed in 1973 and is one of three Baptist World Alliance member organizations in the Southeast Asian country. It comprises 42,000 members in 260 churches and includes churches and mission points in 23 of Indonesia's 33 provinces.

UIBC's mission is "To unite all of the churches to help and support each other in doing the Great Commission."

Its mission-focused five-year plan, 2010-2015, is to baptize 12,000 new members, plant 120 new churches, train 120 new pastors and full time church workers, reach an additional 12 "unreached people groups," and to commission 12 full time local and international missionaries.

There are currently six missionaries in Hong Kong, Singapore and Timor Leste.

The Indonesian Baptist Theological Seminary in Semarang, started in 1954, prepares future pastors, leaders and ministers; equip current pastors, leaders and ministers; and enrich pastors, leaders, ministers and churches. The seminary has more than 400 students across all programs.

Other seminaries supported by UIBC are the Jakarta Baptist Theological Seminary, the Bandung Baptist Theological Seminary and the Medan Baptist Theological Seminary.

UIBC's other education institutions include the Baptist Training Center, the Nursing Academy- Kediri and the Indonesian Design Academy, among others.

Indonesian Baptists Publishing House was founded in 1959. It produces Christian tracts, books and a magazine as well as Sunday school materials for all age groups, discipleship training materials, church leadership materials, devotional books and other publications.  

The union operates three hospitals in the cities of Kediri, Batu Malang and Lampung.

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In addition to being BWA vice president, Blackburn was a member of the General Council, the Executive Committee, the Commission on Evangelism and Mission and the Division of Evangelism and Education Committee. He attended 12 consecutive Baptist World Congresses beginning in 1955 in London, England, until the most recent congress in 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Blackburn was general secretary of the Baptist Union of Australia (BUA) from 1949-1971 and BUA president between 1971 and 1975. He pastored the Syndal Baptist Church from 1972-1986.

Early in his ministry, he pastored churches in Victoria State before becoming a military chaplain during World War Two. Later, he served as youth director for the Baptist Unions of Victoria and Tasmania, editor of Sunday School Publications from 1949 to 1972, editor of the state Baptist monthly paper The Witness, from 1949 to 1957 and was involved in the Baptist Historical Society of Victoria. He was also president of the Baptist Union of Victoria and sat on the Victorian Foreign Mission and the Australian Baptist Missionary Society.

Blackburn was a member of the Whitley College Council for 36 years, was president of the school from 1994-1995 and was appointed a college fellow. In 2001, Whitley named its new library the Geoffrey Blackburn Library.

He worked in the New Settlers ministry for three decades, preaching in Slavic churches and others of the settler's group within the Baptist union.

His memoir, Beyond Imagining, was published in 2001.

Blackburn held degrees and diplomas from Whitley College when it was the Baptist College of Victoria, the Melbourne College of Divinity, the University of Melbourne and Fuller Seminary in California in the United States.

He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1998 "for services to the Baptist church, in particular through the Baptist Union of Australia and the Baptist World Alliance."

He is survived by wife, Jessie, and sons Keith and Alan.

Funeral services were held at Syndal Baptist Church and at the Lilydale Memorial Park on July 18.

Sven Ohm, a former mission secretary for the Baptist Union of Sweden (BUS), died on August 13 after head injuries sustained from a fall. He was 85 years old. 

Ohm, in addition to being the pastor of several churches in Sweden, served the Baptist union as national secretary of the Youth League. He was BUS mission secretary for nearly 25 years, during which time Swedish Baptists expanded their mission work in other countries, encouraging Baptists in local communities to assume responsibilities for some of these mission endeavors.

He served the Baptist World Alliance as chair of the Conference of International Mission Secretaries from 1973-1989 as well as a member of the General Council, the Commission on Evangelism and Mission,, the World Evangelization Strategy Workgroup and the Youth Committee.

In a brief article in the July/September 2014 issue of Baptist World magazine, Ohm wrote, "as a close friend of the Baptist World Alliance I always follow the BWA with prayers and warm thoughts."

Ordained to the Christian ministry in 1951, Ohm earned degrees and diplomas from the Baptist Theological Seminary in Zurich, Switzerland, Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City and Dallas Baptist University in Texas, both in the United States.

Funeral services were held September 6 at Kungsholmen Baptist Church.

He was predeceased by his wife, Ann-Britt and leaves children Michael, Jan and Marie.

Swarupananda Patra, general secretary of Orissa Baptist Evangelistic Crusade (OBEC) in India, died on July 6, from cardiac arrest. He was 62 year old.

Patra, a member of the Baptist World Alliance General Council, had deep Baptist roots. His father, Sadananda Patra, was president of United Theological School in Cuttack, a Baptist institution established in 1835 by the Baptist Missionary Society out of the United Kingdom.

Swarupananda Patra has been eulogized as the "face and voice" of Baptists and other Christians in Orissa, an eastern state in India, holding various positions among Baptists and the wider Christian community. In addition to being general secretary of OBEC, he was general secretary of the Utkal Christian Church Central Council that has its origins in pre-independent India, established to manage Baptist properties in various parts of Orissa.

He was president of the Young Men's Christian Association in Bhubaneswa, Orissa's capital city; president of the Bhubaneswar Christian Community, which comprises 74 churches and para-church organizations to aid in the development of the Christian community in the capital; and president of the Orissa Minority Forum, a religious minorities body focusing on protection of human rights of Christians in Orissa.

Patra was the main spokesperson and representative of the Christian community in the wake of anti-Christian violence that erupted in the Kandhamal district of Orissa in 2008 that led to loss of life, injuries, destruction of homes and displacement of hundreds. Patra was instrumental in getting the local government and security authorities to take action to stem the violence.

Prior to serving the church full time, Patra, a scientist, worked in the Indian Space Research Organization, was director of Doordarshan for the government of India, and was a former director of the State Institute of Educational Technology for the state government.

He wrote Baptists in Orissa: Champions for Christ, which focuses on the contributions of Baptists to the state to Orissa, especially in church planting and congregational development.

Funeral services were held on July 7 at the Christian Cemetery in Satya Nagar, Bhubaneswar, in Orissa.

He is survived by wife, Rashmi Mohapatra, son Sasmit Patra and daughter, Ipsita Patra.