Callam

Jamaican clergyman Neville Callam is the new general secretary-elect of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA).

His ground-breaking election to the office of general secretary took place during the BWA General Council meeting in Accra, Ghana, West Africa, on Friday. More than 450 delegates from over 50 countries attended the meetings which ran from July 2-7.

Callam is the first person outside of Europe or North America to be elected to the high office of general secretary, making him the chief executive officer of one of the largest Protestant church bodies in the world.

The BWA has a membership of more than 36 million baptised believers and represents a community of approximately 110 million Baptists worldwide who are part of more than 200 conventions and unions.

A former vice-president of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship, one of six continental federations of the BWA, Callam has held every senior position within the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU), including that of president between 1985-1987 and 2000-2002, as well as acting general secretary and general treasurer.

Callam is also a media manager, having founded, chaired and managed the religious radio station TBC FM in Jamaica. He also chairs the board of the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica, was a founding director of the National Religious Media Company of Jamaica, owner and operator of LOVE FM and LOVE TV, and was chairman of the JBU media commission, which is responsible for the union's two radio programmes, website and publication ministries.

My ancestors

In his acceptance speech, Callam said: "My ancestors were born somewhere on this great continent of Africa. They were rounded up and shipped to the West Indies, where they endured many years of enslavement. Then God emancipated both them and their oppressors."

The new general secretary-elect assumes duties in September at the BWA headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia, close to Washington, D.C. in the United States.

Callam's election comes after a year-long process that began at the last general council meeting in Mexico City, in July 2006.