Neville Callam has been elected as the new General Secretary Elect of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA).
Callam's groundbreaking election to the office of General Secretary took place during the BWA General Council meeting in Accra, Ghana, in West Africa earlier this month.Callam, a Jamaican, is the first person outside of Europe or North America to be elected to the high office of General Secretary, making him the Chief Executive Officer of one of the largest Protestant church bodies in the world.
The BWA has a membership of more than 36 million baptised believers and represents a community of approximately 110 million Baptists worldwide that are part of more than 200 conventions and unions.
Callam's election comes after a year-long process that began at the last General Council meeting in Mexico City, in July 2006. Nominations for the position of General Secretary were invited from all over the world.
After the nomination deadline on 31 October 2006, a series of meetings and interviews were held by the Search Committee to determine the most appropriate candidate to succeed Denton Lotz. General Secretary since 1988, Lotz is the longest serving CEO in the more than 100-year history of the international church body.
Callam's name was forwarded to the meeting of the BWA Executive Committee in March 2007, which unanimously endorsed his nomination.
Callam, 56, is a respected theologian who has written five books and published numerous articles in journals. He has spoken at seminars, fora and symposia in countries as diverse as South Africa, Malaysia, and Germany, among many other countries, and is a respected member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches.
