Carter to speak to Baptists in Birmingham

The multiracial Baptist association former President Jimmy Carter helped kick-start in Atlanta will begin a series of regional meetings this weekend in Birmingham.

Carter and other organizers hope the New Baptist Covenant, an informal organization that brought about 14,000 black, white and Hispanic Baptists to Atlanta in 2008, will work to address society’s ills. Members talked of helping those in prison and the poor, feeding the hungry, helping Third World nations develop and of missions.

Instead of a national gathering in 2009, participants will meet in four regional meetings.

The first one in Birmingham will take place Saturday, featuring as speakers Carter and Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.

Workshops on health care, poverty and race are planned.

Later this year, other regional meetings will take place in Kansas City, Norman, Oklahoma, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2010, regional meetings will be held in western locations, said Lance Wallace, a spokesman for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which is a participating organization.

Wallace said the meetings are to encourage cooperation and cement relationships that formed during the first meeting. National gatherings will be held every three years, he said.

Information: http://www.newbaptistcelebration.org/.