South African Ngwedla Paul Msiza has been elected president of the Baptist World Alliance it was announced earlier this month.
Msiza, who was elected along with 12 vice-presidents at an annual gathering in Turkey, will take office at the 21st Baptist World Congress in Durban, South Africa, in July next year. He succeeds John Upton of the US.
Actively involved in the BWA since 2000 and currently pastor of the Peniel-Salem Baptist Church in Pretoria, Msiza is the second African to be elected to the BWA presidency. The first was WilliamTolbert of Liberia who served from 1965 to 1970 before becoming president of Liberia in 1971, a role he continued in until his assassination during a military coup in 1980.
Next year’s world congress is the first to be held in Africa.
