The Church in Disorienting Times

MARTIN ACCAD has a DPhil from the University of Oxford, UK. He is Chief Academic Officer at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Mansourieh, Lebanon, and Director of its Institute of Middle East Studies. He is also Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at ABTS and Affiliate Associate Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, USA.

RAMEZ ATALLAH is the General Secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt, a post he has held since 1990. He was born and raised in Egypt. He moved with his parents to Canada in the early 1960s after the Egyptian government nationalized his parents’ properties. He returned to Egypt in 1980, together with his wife, Rebecca, who is Canadian although born in Haiti where her parents were missionaries. He was Regional Secretary for the Middle East of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) from 1980 to 1990. He has participated in the Lausanne Movement since its inception in 1974, twice serving as its Vice-Chairman, and was Program Chairman for the Cape Town 2010 Congress.

DANIEL BANNOURA is a member of the faculty of Bethlehem Bible College where he is an instructor in Comparative Religion and Church History. He was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Palestine and the USA. He has a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Florida and holds master’s degrees in Theology from the London School of Theology and in Islamic Philosophy from the University of Chicago. His academic interests cover medieval philosophy, Arab theology and Muslim–Christian relations.

GREG BUTT is Canadian and pastor of Northmount Baptist Church in Calgary, Canada. He was born in Calgary but spent much of his childhood in India where his parents were missionaries. He holds a Bachelor of Biblical Studies (Briercrest Bible College, 1984), a Master of Divinity (Ambrose Seminary, formerly Canadian Theological Seminary, 1988) and a master’s degree in Christian Leadership (Crest Leadership, December 2017).

ELIE HADDAD is President of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) in Mansourieh, Lebanon. He grew up in Sidon, Lebanon, before moving to Canada where he lived, worked and studied for fifteen years. He returned to Lebanon in 2005 when he joined the staff of ABTS. He became President in 2008. He holds Canadian and Lebanese nationality.

PHILIP HALLIDAY is a British citizen born in northern Scotland. He is a Baptist minister and has lived in France since 1993. He was Baptist Mission Society’s Regional Director for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa until summer 2017. He combined this with leading the French Baptists’ church-planting team. Since September 2017 he has focused on local church-planting in France as well as continuing as Head of Development for the French Baptist Federation.

DR NEHLA ISSAC is Syrian and lives in Damascus. Her first degree was in dentistry and after working for several years she became an Assistant Professor of Dentistry at the University of Damascus. In 2001 she founded Women Above Crisis, a charity supporting women in difficult situations. In 2006 the service expanded to include young men and cooperation with IFES. In 2015 she became head of a charity offering humanitarian and relief services, including psychological support, to victims of the war in Syria.

REV YOHANNA KATANACHO is a professor of Biblical Studies and Academic Dean at Nazareth Evangelical College. He is a Palestinian Israeli evangelical who studied at Bethlehem University (BSc), Wheaton College (MA), and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (MDiv; PhD). He has authored many books in English and Arabic including The Land of Christ: A Palestinian Cry and contributed to the Palestinian Kairos Document. Rev Katanacho is an Old Testament editor for the Arabic Contemporary Commentary and Asia Bible Commentary Series.

DR EHAB EL-KHARRAT is a medical doctor in Egypt. His work includes establishing an organization that works with drug addicts. He is an elder of Qasr al-Dūbārah Presbyterian Church, Cairo, and a former member of the upper house of the Egyptian Parliament.

SHANE MCNARY is an American citizen living and working in Slovakia, primarily among Roma peoples.

DR GARY NELSON is Canadian and President of Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, Canada.

REV DR HELEN PAYNTER is a British citizen and Principal of Bristol Baptist College, UK.

REV HAROUT SELIMAN is a Syrian working in Aleppo. Ethnically, he is of Armenian origin and is a priest in the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Theology and a master’s in Theology of Ministry, both from the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon. Among various positions held he has been Chair of the Educational Committee of the Armenian Evangelical Community in Syria from 1998 to the present day.

GORDON SHOWELL-ROGERS is Global Director of One We Stand (www.onewestand.org) which promotes religious freedom and social justice. He was Associate Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance from 2010 to 2016, having previously been General Secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance for eleven years. Before that he taught in a high school, was on the leadership and staff of a local church in the UK, was General Secretary of the Austrian IFES movement and led a mission agency serving foreign students.