This Council expresses its deepest appreciation:
• to the government of Argentina for its gracious welcome and its readiness to grant visas to all participants;
• to the officers and churches of the Convenciòn Evangèlica Bautista Argentina for the careful preparations, warm welcome, generous hospitality and interpretation service;
Once again WE EXPRESS OUR PROFOUND CONCERN over international tensions, the armed conflicts in certain regions, the economic burden of large armaments and armed forces, the threat of nuclear annihilation of humanity;
We rejoice in the success of the 10th Baptist World Youth Conference recently held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We strongly reaffirm the following message from the Conference addressed to Baptists of the world and commend its implementation in whatever way seems most appropriate:
While we acknowledge that there are strong cultural and theological differences about the role of women in the church, we wish to affirm the teaching of Galatians 3:28 that in Christ, male and female are equal.
We encourage the churches to affirm this truth in the life and thereby reflect integrity in our Christian witness.
WE CALL UPON Baptists of the world, in cooperation with other Christians, to make one of their evangelistic goals the winning of a whole new generation of young people for Christ, by sharing with them the Gospel of hope as the only answer to the many problems and dangers facing them — nuclear threat, unemployment, drugs, hunger, poverty, materialism, racism, violence, etc.
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in West Berlin, sends warm Christian greetings to the Lutheran World Federation meeting at the same time in Budapest. We pray for God’s blessing on your deliberations and on the work of your churches throughout the world.
This Council expresses its deep appreciation to the Union of the Evangelical Free Churches s in Germany (Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland), to the Baptist Churches of Berlin West and to the city authorities, for their welcome and generous hospitality and for their careful preparations for these Council meetings. We also thank the officers and staff of the Alliance for their commitment and organization which have insured the success of the meetings.
We reaffirm the fundamental Christian convictions expressed in Resolution 1983.4 of the Baptist World Alliance, adopted in July 1983 in the Republic of Argentina, namely that “human rights are God-given and that violations of human rights are violations of the laws of God.”
he BWA General Council welcomes the report of the Youth Executive Committee on the value of the Asian Youth Leadership Training Conference in Singapore last week.
With them we thank God for the enthusiasm and commitment of the youth leaders who shared in this cross- cultural experience. We also acknowledge the support of those Unions and Conventions which made it possible for so many to attend.
The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Singapore July 2-5, 1986, sends greetings to the Southern Baptist Convention and conveys interest in the well-being of the Convention through prayer that it may experience under the Lordship of Christ a strengthening of harmony and goodwill, and thereby continue to direct its total effort, out of the abundance of its resources in Christ and its churches, to the winning of people to Christ and the building up of the Church as the agent of peace and reconciliation in the world.