A Storied History
The Inaugural Meeting of the first Baptist World Congress was held at Exeter Hall on Tuesday, July 11, 1905. His Honour Judge Willis, K.C., President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, occupied the chair, and the hall was crowded with the delegates, numbering nearly 3,000.
The meeting opened with the hymn:
“From distance climes, from every land,
Behold us, Lord, before thee stand.”
Since 1905, the BWA has convened the Baptist World Congress, bringing together every five years, the most internationally diverse group of Baptists for worship, relationship building, and global missions. Recent Congresses include gatherings in Durban, South Africa (2015); Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (2010); Birmingham, England (2005); and Melbourne, Australia (2000). In 2020, the pandemic prevented us from being “Together” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so we gathered in an historic first virtual Congress in July 2021, enabling us to celebrate the most globally diverse gathering of Baptists in the world to date, with a virtual attendance of more than 4,600 participants from 146 countries.
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1905
London, England -
1911
Philadelphia, PA (USA) -
1923
Stockholm, Sweden -
1928
Toronto, Canada -
1934
Berlin, Germany -
1939
Atlanta, Georgia (USA) -
1947
Copenhagen, Denmark -
1950
Cleaveland, Ohio (USA) -
1955
London, England -
1960
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -
1965
Miami Beach, FL (USA) -
1970
Tokyo, Japan -
1975
Stockholm, SwedenBilly Graham is pictured preaching at an open-air rally to a crowd of 30,000 – a powerful conclusion to the 1975 Baptist World Congress in Stockholm, Sweden.
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1980
Toronto, Canada -
1985
Los Angeles, California (USA) -
1990
Seoul, South KoreaIn 1990, the BWA adopted the Seoul Covenant, which launched a decade of intentional evangelistic efforts with the goal for all people to hear about Christ in their own language
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1995
Buenos Aires, Argentina -
2000
Melbourne, Australia -
2005
Birmingham, England
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2010
Honolulu, Hawaii (USA)
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2015
Durban, South Africa