VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 10/24/14)—American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) encourages American Baptists to register now for the New Baptist Covenant Summit to be held January 14 and 15, 2015, in Atlanta, Ga. The gathering will commission and celebrate “Covenants of Action”—or projects in which at least two churches from varying Baptist traditions cooperate to address a pressing community need.
“The New Baptist Covenant expresses the best of what it means to be Baptist in the United States of America. In addition to our mutual commitments to Bible, soul, church and religious freedoms, we aim for a covenantal commitment to each other, which transcends racial homogeneity and denominational nativism,” says Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III, ABHMS executive director and co-leader of the summit’s program committee. “As difficult as it may be, New Baptist Covenant participants are committed to living out the Jesus Manifesto in Luke 4:18 in partnership with others.”
Summit speakers will include American Baptists Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, senior pastor of the historic Riverside Church in New York City and ABHMS board member; Rev. Luis Cortéz Jr., president and CEO of Esperanza, the largest Hispanic faith-based Evangelical network in the United States; and Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, spiritual home of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The New Baptist Covenant is a movement founded by President Jimmy Carter in 2007 to break down barriers of race, theology and geography among Baptists and to incarnate Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (NRSV).
Wright-Riggins, along with ABHMS Associate Executive Director of Missional Life and Leadership Rev. Dr. Marilyn P. Turner, participated in the New Baptist Covenant Summit in Atlanta in November 2013.
To view a video about the New Baptist Covenant and Covenants of Action, visit http://vimeo.com/99205251. To register for the summit or for more information, visit the New Baptist Covenant’s website at http://newbaptistcovenant.org.
American Baptist Home Mission Societies—the domestic mission arm of American Baptist Churches USA—ministers as the caring heart and serving hands of Jesus Christ across the United States and Puerto Rico through a multitude of initiatives that focus on discipleship, community and justice.
American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with over 5,200 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.