Scottish Baptists got together over the weekend for their annual assembly - the first to be joint hosted by the Baptist Union of Scotland (BUS) and BMS World Mission.

Aids, injustice and human trafficking were just some of the topics discussed at the event, which ran under the theme of 'World Service? Listening to the Global Church'.

A Lebanese speaker whose organisation housed refugees in a theological seminary during the recent war shared a stage with a UN expert on HIV, a Scottish Chief Constable and the head of South Africa's Baptist Convention.

The impressive list of speakers included:
Sally Smith, Partnership Advisor to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/Aids and former BMS mission worker
Nabil Costa, head of BMS partner organisation, the Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development (LSESD), which housed refugees during the recent war
Paul Msiza, General Secretary of BMS partner organisation, the Baptist Convention of South Africa
Colin McKerracher, Chief Constable of Grampian Police
Marion Carson, world authority on human trafficking and BUS representative to the European Baptist Federation consultation on that subject
Bill Slack, General Director of BUS
Alistair Brown, General Director of BMS

Bill Slack said ahead of the assembly: "I'm particularly excited about this year's Assembly opening up the theme: 'World Service - Listening to the Global Church'.

As local church people, it's too easy for us to become inward looking and insular. The Church, however, is more than local; it's universal. We need to listen to one another as Baptist brothers and sisters across the world."

Alistair Brown echoed Slack's sentiments, saying, "It's a very modern theme. It's hard to imagine 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago that we would have had a theme like that, because we assumed that we had the knowledge, we had the ways of the so-called civilised world, and that others had to learn from us. Now, thankfully, we are realising that Britain is a needy, missionary nation. If we really will listen, without tokenism, it could revolutionise us."

Slack welcomed the new partnership with BMS for the assembly: "The very fact that we are partnering is indicative of the fact that we are part of the global church. BMS is our mission agency. They are well placed to help us open up ourselves to the wider scene".