CABF Annual General Meeting
The CABF 2025 Annual General Meeting was held October 4 at First Baptist Church Amherst, NS.
There is an Agenda for the Annual General Meeting with links to all reports. All of the reports were approved by the meeting. Details are available by following this link CABF EVENTS.
2025 Assembly
This Assembly was held in conjunction with the 2025 Annual General Meeting at First Baptist Church Amherst on October 3 and 4, 2025. The Guest Speaker was Robert Seymour Wright who spoke twice.
His Friday evening lecture was "The Shelter of Freedom." It may be viewed on You Tube by following this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/lBEmxKNTredT1BMZ0XYOfzBBEe4jh_Dt9iSNMoW3hI8DNxjmGT9204le7gzR_7yZ.b3UoDaG2cPlekhDV Passcode: %m41IPmX
His Saturday morning lecture was "The Command of Freedom." It may be viewed on You Tube by following this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/DzZ_CZQgFOyIZh761ZH-8kSfUiRpkmAfeeFff4b8cwOMXZMx9isNcJ7OY_-Up90f.i61aD5RmACPZmQEz Passcode: J0qW+?+R
Our Guest Speaker,
Robert Seymour Wright
Robert Seymour Wright is a queer, African Nova Scotian Social Worker and Sociologist whose 35 year career has spanned the fields of education, child welfare, forensic mental health, trauma, sexual violence, and cultural competence. He recently completed terms of service as the founding Executive Director of both the Peoples’ Counselling Clinic (Nov. 2017 - March 2024) and the African Nova Scotian Justice Institute (Fall 2021 - March 2024) and currently continues at the Peoples’ Counselling Clinic as Director Emeritus, Consultant and Therapist.
Robert’s identity and work are grounded in his integrated and activist spirituality. He was an early practitioner of what has come to be known as Equity, Diversity and Inclusion work and developed a model for understanding and practicing Cultural Competence that continues to be a useful framework. He pioneered the introduction of Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (IRCAs): a specialized, forensic, clinical presentence report for people of African descent. This latter work has received national attention. In August of 2021 the Government of Canada funded to expand the implementation of IRCAs nationally.
As a lecturer, Robert has taught in social work, sociology, criminology, child and youth studies, education and counselling. He taught in all four of the Africentric MEd cohorts sponsored and organized by the Council on African Canadian Education. As part of that programme he taught at Acadia in the summer of 2017 a course he developed with the title, Trauma Informed Approaches to Mental Health: Africentric Perspectives. In the Spring of 2023 he taught Counselling for Social Justice and Culturally Responsive Practices at Acadia.
Robert's work was recognized by his profession with the Canadian Association of Social Workers Distinguished Service Award in 2012 and on January 1, 2022 it was highlighted in the Toronto Globe and Mail’s Difference Makers feature which highlighted some of the "people working to make Canada a better place". In June of 2022 Robert was presented with the Leighann Wichman Lifetime Achievement Award from the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project "in honour of a long-term commitment to activism and leadership that has significantly impacted the lives of 2SLGBTQIA+ people across Nova Scotia.”
In August of 2024 he was awarded the King Charles III’s Coronation Medal for having made a significant contribution to Canada.
Robert is the father of two grown children and the uncle of so many. He was orphaned in January 2023 when the last of his parent-like caregivers passed. Robert cared for his mother and godparents and facilitated them each passing peacefully at home in their own beds from 2020 through 2023.
Letters to Members and Friends of the CABF
We encourage you to share these letters with those who you feel might be interested and to post them on your Church bulletin board.
If you have not received a copy of these letters in your personal email account and would like to receive future communications as soon as they are posted, just notify us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
--CABF Executive and Council
The May 2025 Letter to Members and Friends is available here.
The January, 2025 Letter to Members and Friends is available here.
New Catgegory of Pastoral Accreditation
At the AGM held on September 24, 2024, the members ratified changes to the Policy on Credentials Committee which had been recommended by the Credentials Committee and approved by the CABF Council.
These changes have established a new category of accreditation to allow a local church to request recognition of a Local Church Minister. In some cases, a local church may not have a minister who meets the requirements for licensing or ordination. However, they have been called to ministry by the congregation and the congregation may wish to have this person recognized as a Local Church Minister. This would be particularly the case for part-time and multi-vocational ministers whether in a solitary ministry in a small church or those taking a specific ministry roll in a larger church.
Unlike applications for Licensing and Ordination, which are initiated by the candidate, applications for recognition of Local Church Ministers are made by the congregation and remain valid only while the minister is exercising that role with that particular congregation.
The Policy on Credentials Committee, which includes this revised text is found on pages 31 to 46 of the updated Policy and & Procedures Manual, is available here.
Historic Ordinations: Luke Dowding and Andrea King: Two LGBTQ British Baptist Ministers Ordained in Canada
October 27, 2024: Congratulations to Luke Dowding and Andrea King who were ordained at First Baptist Church Halifax this afternoon.
To see the whole article, including photographs, follow this link Canadian Association for Baptist Freedoms - Historic Ordinations.
Historic Ordination: Arla Johnston
First Baptist Church Halifax, acting on the recommendation of a CABF Ordination Council, ordained Rev. Arla Johnson to Christian Ministry on Sunday, April 2nd. Arla is the Minister of Inclusive Community at First Baptist and one of the founders of Queer Spirit Church. We believe she is the first married lesbian woman to be ordained in a Baptist Church in Canada. You can watch a video of the service here. (Photo by Dr. Rob Fennell.)
Surrey, B.C., Church Switches Affiliation to be More Inclusive
A Surrey, B.C., Baptist church has switched its affiliation to a more inclusive religious group, more than a decade after a gay couple who were members forced a reckoning over how they were being treated.
Full News Story Available Here
Video Available Here (starts at 18:51)
50th Anniversary Celebration
What a wonderful time we had in Wolfville as we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the ABF-CABF! For a look at the program and to find links to various presentations, click here. A particularly poignant moment was the showing of a memorial slide set of some of those whose presence and leadership has meant so much. You can see it here.
Telling the Story of the CABF
Two videos have been produced to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Association for Baptist Freedoms and its predecessor, the Atlantic Baptist Fellowship. Both videos are now on our CABF YouTube channel - watch and share them today!
CABF Voices - 5Oth Anniversary "Long"
CABF Voices - 50th Anniversary "Short"
50th Anniversary Lapel Pins
Lapel pi
ns to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of ABF/CABF are available from the Treasurer at a cost of $10 each and can be obtained by sending an e-Transfer to cabftreasurer at gmail dot com (you know how to write that as an email address) and adding a name and mailing address in the “add a message” section of the e-Transfer or sending your request and a cheque to the Treasurer.
When Dues are Due!
CABF Individual Membership is on a twelve (12) month basis, so annual dues of $20 are due one year following your last payment date. For more information on membership click here.
Donations
You can donate to CABF through CanadaHelps.org - click on the image above. You will receive an immediate charitable receipt and your gift will be transferred.