Celebrating How God Moved Among Us
More than 500 Baptist leaders from 65 countries gathered for the 2026 BWA Annual Gathering to worship, pray, learn, and discern how God is calling us to impact the world for Christ. While the Gathering has concluded, the mission continues. We invite every Baptist – every church, convention, ministry, and individual believer – to take the next step together as one global Baptist family, living out our faith and embracing this year’s theme, “The Table of Christ: One Gospel, Many People.”
We are incredibly grateful for the team of volunteer writers and photographers who served throughout the week.
Check out the links below for daily recaps and photos from the event.
Day Two • Tuesday, July 7
Morning Session:
By Catherine Cole
The third plenary session of the 2026 Annual Gathering moved through worship, regional updates, recognition, and proclamation, with each part returning in some way to the question at the heart of the week: what does it mean to gather at the table of Christ?
Merlyn Hyde Riley opened the session with the reminder that “this is the day that the Lord has made,” and that the same Lord who was present yesterday was present again among those gathered. Worship was led by First Baptist Church Toronto, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year as the oldest Baptist institution in the city.
Updates from the All Africa Baptist Fellowship and the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation gave participants a wider view of Baptist life around the world. Leaders from Africa gave thanks for significant growth, including the addition of 1,000 churches and 500,000 members, while also naming the realities of conflict, displacement, poverty, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks. Leaders from Asia Pacific spoke of a region that includes 73 conventions, 40,000 churches, and half of the world’s population, where opportunities for mission continue to grow alongside the need for leadership development, theological training, and prayer.
One of the most moving moments of the session came with the presentation of the Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights Award, marking the award’s 20th anniversary. Jennifer Lau, Chair of the BWA Awards Committee, described the nomination and deliberation process before Rev. Dr. Harry Gardner introduced this year’s recipient, Rev. Dr. H. Daniel Zacharias.
Zacharias, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Acadia Divinity College and a faculty member of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, was recognized for his work in truth and reconciliation with the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. Gardner spoke of Zacharias’ role in helping Christians and Baptists reckon with the history of colonization and its ongoing impact, while building bridges with Indigenous neighbours. In response, Zacharias offered his thanks through a song in Mi’kmaq, honouring the Indigenous Peoples on whose lands he lives. The room received the song with quiet attentiveness before Rev. Renée MacVicar prayed over him and his continued work.
The session closed with a sermon from Dr. Alyn Waller of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia, USA, who preached from 1 Corinthians 11:23–29 under the title, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” Waller brought humour, energy, and conviction to the room, drawing lively response from those gathered as he pressed listeners to consider what they bring to the Lord’s table. Drawing from Paul’s words to a divided community, he called participants to examine hidden biases, strained relationships, and the places where pride or prejudice can distort fellowship.
Waller invited participants to consider their relationship with God, with others at the table, with their neighbours, and with themselves. To come to the table is not only to eat together, but to serve one another. It is a place where difficult conversations can happen, where disagreement does not have to undo belonging, and where the people of God can still agree on Jesus. The session closed with gratitude for both the gift and the responsibility of being at Christ’s table together.
Afternoon Session:
By Catherine Cole
By the fourth plenary session, the gathering’s theme had moved from welcome to mission, and toward a more searching question: what kind of table has Christ prepared?
Enoch Thompson opened by naming the table of Christ as a place of mission, celebration, acceptance, and belonging. Those who are welcomed to the table, he reminded participants, are also called to extend that welcome to others. After Pastora “Tori” Acosta Méndez read Romans 14:1–12 in Spanish, Rev. Dr. H. Daniel Zacharias brought the message. The title itself carried much of what he would go on to unpack: “Welcome to the Melting Pot Buffet Table of Christ: One Gospel, Many People.”
Speaking as an Indigenous follower of Jesus, Zacharias helped participants understand the context of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, the history of treaties, and ongoing issues of food insecurity, boil-water advisories, and trauma of Residential Schools. For those less familiar with Canada’s history, these realities made clear that reconciliation is not abstract. It belongs to the story Christians in Canada must tell truthfully. From Romans 14, Zacharias pointed to four commands Paul gives a divided church: welcome one another, do not despise, do not judge, and be fully convinced. He described these as the architecture of unity around the table and asked what might have been different if Romans 14 had shaped the Church’s response to colonization. What if unity, rather than conformity, had been the goal?
“The table of Christ is not a melting pot,” Zacharias said. It is not a place where people are expected to leave behind their histories, cultures, or ways of knowing in order to belong. No one reads Scripture outside of culture, he reminded the room. When someone sits at the table, they sit there with their ancestors, their stories, and the history that has shaped them.
The unity of the table is not sameness. It is the shared confession that Jesus is Lord. For Zacharias, that meant Indigenous culture was not something to mute for the comfort of others, but part of what he brings as a gift. In a room of believers from many nations, languages, and cultures, the invitation reached well beyond one context. Around Christ’s table, no one should have to disappear into the dominant culture in order to belong. Zacharias closed with song and drum, inviting the room to open their hearts to truth and to the perfect love that casts out fear.
Rev. Dr. Elijah Brown then turned attention to the Acts 2 Movement, reminding participants that the table is also a place of mission. Stories from Latin America, Denmark, Honduras, and churches in the US showed how Baptists are living this through prayer, Scripture, care, neighbour love, freedom, and justice. The session ended with the reminder that there are still empty seats at Christ’s table, and the invitation is ours to extend.
Commission Highlights
Building Your Safeguarding Toolkit
By Cathy Millar
Safeguarding is often thought of as a policy tucked away in a binder, but Jessica Barry challenged participants to see it as something much bigger. Drawing on her experience as Director of Risk, Governance and Business Optimization at Baptist World Aid Australia, she described safeguarding as an entire culture. It is one where governance, training, policies, procedures, recruitment, audits, reporting systems, and everyday practices all work together to protect people and uphold their dignity.
Rather than focusing only on compliance, Jessica emphasized the importance of turning policy into lived reality. Strong commitments to child safety and empowerment mean little unless people experience them through practical, accessible tools. Much of the session explored how organizations can bridge that gap.
A major focus was informed consent. She described consent as one of the clearest expressions of safeguarding because it respects the dignity, safety, and agency of every individual. Whether gathering stories and photographs for communications, conducting surveys, or serving on a short-term mission trip, people should always understand what they are agreeing to, how their information will be used, and have the freedom to say yes or no.
To support this, Baptist World Aid Australia has developed a practical toolkit that includes illustrated storybooks explaining programs in simple language, consent forms, visual conversation guides, facilitator notes, fact sheets, communication examples showing how stories and images may be used, and short informational videos. One particularly meaningful innovation is providing participants with a physical copy of their consent in their own language after the conversation takes place, reinforcing transparency and shared ownership rather than treating consent as merely paperwork.
Jessica also spoke about creating child-friendly complaint processes that help children and young people understand how to raise concerns safely. The goal is not simply to respond to problems but to create environments where every person knows they have a voice and understands how to use it.
Implementing safeguarding consistently across 18 countries presents unique challenges. Languages do not always have a direct equivalent for the word “safeguarding,” and cultural attitudes toward abuse and risk can vary significantly. Rather than imposing solutions, Baptist World Aid works alongside local churches and partners to develop approaches that make sense within each context while maintaining consistent standards of protection and accountability.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of ethical communications. Whether sharing stories, taking photographs, or collecting testimonies, organizations must ensure that participants fully understand how their information will be used. Respecting people’s dignity is just as important as telling compelling stories.
During the question-and-answer period, participants asked about the organization’s work across Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe, how safeguarding is adapted in different cultural settings. Questions also explored informed consent during mission trips, appropriate terminology in various languages, and the importance of acknowledging that abuse can occur within any community, including Christian organizations, and it is to be addressed honestly and effectively.
The workshop concluded with a simple but powerful reminder: safeguarding is not achieved through policies alone. It is built through intentional systems, practical tools, ongoing training, and everyday actions that demonstrate respect, transparency, and care for every person.
God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?By Cathy Millar
Some conference sessions fill your notebook with practical ideas. Others quietly work on your heart. This workshop, led by Leanne Friesen, Tom Tillman, and Dana Podrianbinkina-Kaliytiene, was unmistakably the latter.
The title itself, God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?, set the tone for an honest and emotionally rich conversation. Rather than offering easy answers, the session invited participants to rediscover a form of prayer that many churches have quietly neglected: lament.
Leanne reminded us that lament is not a sign of weak faith but one of Scripture’s most faithful responses to suffering. Nearly a third of the Psalms are laments, alongside Lamentations and many other passages, demonstrating that God welcomes honest prayers, not just joyful ones.
The speakers also observed how uncomfortable many of us have become with grief. We often rush toward solutions, offer reassuring clichés, or leave sorrow to professionals, losing the communal practice of sitting with one another in pain. Through personal stories of loss, Leanne and Dana illustrated how lament creates space to remain connected to God even when answers never come.
Psalm 13 became a central focus, tracing a movement from complaint to petition to trust. Beginning with the cry, “How long?”, the psalm honestly names suffering before remembering God’s faithfulness. As Dana and Tom reminded participants, lament does not require resolution before hope can begin.
The session also explored the Hebrew word nephesh, often translated as “soul” but more literally understood as “throat,” “breath,” or “living being.” Just as we need breath to live physically, lament becomes a kind of spiritual breathing that allows us to exhale grief rather than suffocating beneath it.
Participants reflected on personal and global suffering, bringing before God everything from individual loss to conflict, natural disasters, illness, and broken communities. The workshop concluded with worship that acknowledged pain without surrendering hope, reminding everyone that God remains present even when circumstances do not change.
Perhaps the greatest takeaway was that lament is one of faith’s deepest expressions. It gives us permission to bring our whole selves before God – our victories, questions, disappointments, and grief. Perhaps the greatest gift of lament is not that it changes our circumstances, but that it keeps us close to the God who walks with us through them.