Tony Cupit, ex-diretor das divisões de Evangelismo e Educação e Estudo e Pesquisa da Aliança Mundial Batista (BWA) (ambas agora fundidas na divisão de Missão, Evangelismo e Reflexão Teológica), foi conferido com um doutorado honorário pelo Centro John Leland de Estudos Teológicos.
Described by Leland as “among the great international figures in Baptist life today,” Cupit, an Australian, was keynote speaker at the June 9 graduation ceremony for the class of 2012. He was honored “for his extraordinary leadership in ministry over some forty plus years.”
A citação elogiou Cupit como pastor, missionário, tradutor bíblico, autor, executivo da igreja e líder batista internacional cujo ministério exemplificou o modelo de liderança transformadora no ministério global.
Cupit was BWA director from 1991 to 2005. Prior to that, he served the �Australian and international Baptist communities in a number of capacities, including as a missionary to Papua New Guinea where, among other things, he and wife Margaret played leading roles in translating Christian scripture into the indigenous language.
In his address, Cupit recounted the sacrificial discipleship of Christians in various parts of the world, past and present, including Baptists. He told the gathering that “the church in the world, including its Baptist expression, continues to be a martyr church.” Recounting past and recent episodes of martyrdom and persecution, he said “if taking up a cross is metaphorical for us, let us always remember it is a reality for our brothers and sisters in Christ in different places throughout the world.”
Cupit explained that “Jesus connected his messiahship with suffering and death” which, at first, “was incomprehensible to the disciples.” He encouraged the graduates to “take up Jesus’ cross,” asserting that “the easy way is not the way of Jesus” because Jesus offered his followers a “life of denial, hardship and sacrifice.”
Vinte pessoas se formaram no Centro Leland. A escola teológica traça suas origens em uma reunião do Conselho Geral do BWA na Ilha do Príncipe Eduardo, Canadá, em 2001. Um grupo de cinco participantes, alguns convidados por Cupit, concordaram com a idéia de criar uma faculdade teológica na área metropolitana de Washington.
Leland participa do Washington Theological Consortium (WTC), um grupo de 17 seminários e instituições relacionadas na região de Washington, DC, que permite a colaboração inter-faculdades, o diálogo ecumênico e a partilha de recursos. Os alunos que participam do Leland Center podem escolher entre 300 cursos diferentes oferecidos dentro do consórcio, enquanto os alunos e professores têm acesso a mais de dois milhões de volumes disponíveis através das bibliotecas do WTC.
Leland’s main campus is located in Arlington in Northern Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, with satellite locations elsewhere in Virginia.
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� Baptist World Alliance
12 de junho de 2012