Rothangliania Chhangte, director of Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance® (BWA), is the 2013 recipient of the Luke Mowbray Ecumenical Award.
The award gives recognition to an American Baptist Church USA member who has made outstanding contribution in ecumenical work at the local, state, national or international level. It will be presented at the Christian Unity Dinner on June 21, during the American Baptist Mission Summit/Biennial in Overland Park, Kansas.
Chhangte, prior to joining the BWA staff on August 1, 2012, served ABCUSA as ecumenical officer where she represented that body on the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Christian Churches Together (CCT), the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) and the BWA.
BWA General Secretary Neville Callam expressed his delight at learning “of the decision of ABCUSA to honor Rothang with the Luke Mowbray Ecumenical Award. Rothang is a thoughtful theologian who has a good grasp of the ecumenical dimensions of the Christian vocation.”
Callam said that Chhangte’s ecumenical experience has been of great benefit to the BWA. “She has brought to her work as director of Baptist World Aid a positive appreciation of the need to develop and maintain relationships of mutual trust and respect with other Christian communions within the universal church. I am not surprised that recognition is being given to the understanding, commitment and enthusiasm she brings to partnering fellow Christians, and the churches to which they belong, in the one mission that God in Christ has entrusted to the church in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As a representative to the WCC while at ABCUSA, Chhangte was instrumental in the implementation of the Decade to Overcome Violence in the United States. She was very involved in reviving and supporting youth and young adult participation in WCC events in the US.
She was a member of the Steering Committee that led to the formation of CCT as an expanded ecumenical table and which led ABCUSA to become a founding member.
Chhangte served on the Executive Committee of the NCC where she made significant contributions to the functioning of the Council and its emphasis upon justice and as co-chair of the NCC Interfaith Commission.
She worked on staff with American Baptist Home Mission Societies, the domestic mission arm of ABCUSA, as liaison to the Myanmar refugee community in the US. She resigned that position after being named director of BWAid in 2012.
The Luke Mowbray Ecumenical Award was established in 1975 at the request of Edna Mowbray, in memory of her late husband to recognize their commitment to achieve Christian unity.
Baptist World Alliance®
© May 10, 2013