|PIC1|The Council of the Baptist Union of Great Britain has put forward a nomination for the next BUGB General Secretary following the retirement of the Revd David Coffey. Rev Jonathan Edwards, who is currently Regional Minister and Team Leader for the South West Association of Baptist Churches (SWBA) has been put forward for the position.

On April 28th, Rev Edwards will be presented to the Baptist Assembly, who will be asked to formally make the appointment.

Rev Lyn Green, the Moderator of the nominating group described Edwards to the Council as “a man who is wholeheartedly committed to Jesus Christ, has a passion for God’s mission to humanity and firmly believes that Baptists have a unique contribution to make to that.”

In his response to the Council, Mr Edwards said, “I need to testify to the complete sense of peace that I have experienced since I accepted the committee’s nomination. This is not because I am confident in myself but because I am now firmly convinced this is of God.”

He said that this was “an incredibly creative period in the life of our denomination’, and stressed that Baptists were ‘unambiguously committed to working with other Christian partners.”

His colleague the Rt Revd Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter, said that he would be "a huge loss to the South West". "He has shown himself to be someone who, being absolutely secure in his own Baptist tradition is able to be open and generous in his dealings with Christians of other traditions.

|TOP|"Those of us who know him have found him to be a deeply caring pastor, a fine teacher of the faith and a very warm and likeable human being. I am sure I speak for all my fellow Church Leaders in Devon when I say that we will miss him deeply, but if every cloud has a silver lining then the lining of Jonathan's appointment to this position in the Baptist Union is a bright and shiny one indeed."

The current BUGB General Secretary, the Revd David Coffey, promised his support to Rev Edwards. He said, “I have known Jonathan as a fellow minister and friend for a number of years and observed first hand his excellent gifts of servant leadership, spiritual wisdom and pastoral care that have proved such a rich blessing to many people.

“His ministry thus far, local, regional and ecumenical, has been an immense training ground for the sphere of service he is now contemplating, and in all this I can see the hand of the Lord in preparing Jonathan for this national ministry.”

Mr Edwards (50) has served as a SWBA regional minister since 1998, and was appointed team leader in 2002. After studying law at St John’s College, Oxford, he trained for Baptist ministry at Regent’s Park College, Oxford. He served as a volunteer with the Church Missionary Society in Kerala, South India from 1980-82, and had pastorates in Bury St Edmunds and Orpington before moving to the South West.

If, as expected, the Assembly confirms the appointment, then Rev Edwards will take up his new position in the autumn.

The Baptist Union of Great Britain is the fifth largest Christian denomination in the UK with over 2100 churches in England and Wales.