VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 8/3/10)—Dr. Denton Lotz, former American Baptist International Ministries (IM) missionary (1969-80) and later General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance (1988-2007), received the 2010 Baptist World Alliance (BWA) Quinquennial Human Rights Award on July 30, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The award, given every five years during the Baptist World Congress, was conferred upon Lotz for a lifetime of commitment to human rights concerns that included not only his ministry as BWA general secretary but also when he served the organization as the Deputy to the General Secretary (1980-88), fulfilling the role of Director of Evangelism and having responsibility for such events as the 10th Youth World Conference in Argentina (1984) and the 11th Youth World Conference in Glasgow, Scotland (1988).
Denton’s commitment to human rights was honed during more than a decade when he was an IM missionary to central and eastern Europe. From 1970-80 his mission assignment was as Professor of Missions and Homiletics at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Ruschlikon, Switzerland. While there, he founded and initially directed the Summer Institute of Theological Education (SITE) that could be accessed by central and eastern Europeans.
Rev. Dr. Reid S. Trulson, IM’s Executive Director, says of the leadership Lotz provided during some of the critical Cold War years, “Denton’s vision that led to SITE ensured a theologically trained cadre of clergy among Baptists from the Soviet bloc nations. Those individuals usually could not get visas from the Soviet Union or the other Communist countries of which they were citizens, to study in the West. But, depending on the political climate at the time, they could get visas for brief stays in neutral Switzerland, during which time they were able to access formal theological education. IM provided funding for the SITE program and helped to secure many of the teachers. The strength of the Baptist churches in central and eastern Europe today is due in no small measure to the sensitivity for human rights combined with a desire for a trained church leadership that Denton Lotz has always displayed.”
To read more details on the award received by Lotz, go to: www.bwanet.org/bwa.php?m=news&p=news_item&id=430
American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with 5,500 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.