The following letter of thanksgiving and remembrance honoring Rev. Dr. Neville Callam was submitted on behalf of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). Read BWA’s Pastoral Statement mourning the passing of Dr. Callam here.
August 17, 2026
The Rev. Dr. Elijah M. Brown
General Secretary and CEO
Baptist World Alliance
405 North Washington Street
Falls Church, Virginia 22046 USA
Dear Dr. Brown:
On behalf of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, I write to you and the Baptist World Alliance family with deep sadness and resurrection hope following the death of the Rev. Dr. Neville Callam, General Secretary Emeritus of the Baptist World Alliance.
Our Cooperative Baptist family joins Baptists around the world in giving thanks to God for his life, faith, ministry and witness. We hold his beloved wife, Dulcie, their children and grandchildren, the Jamaica Baptist Union and all who knew and loved him most in our prayers.
When he was nominated to serve as General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance in 2007, Dr. Callam said, “Living for Jesus is what my life is about. My calling is to serve the cause of Christ.” Today, we thank God that he lived that calling faithfully. His deep devotion to Christ, his love for the church and his commitment to the global Baptist family were evident throughout his ministry.
During his decade as General Secretary, Dr. Callam helped the Baptist World Alliance live more fully as a global Baptist family. He offered leadership marked by theological depth, humility and courageous conviction. He reminded Baptists that the unity we have in Christ is not simply a conviction we profess. It is a gift we receive and a calling we practice. He called us to receive one another as sisters and brothers, to stand with people who suffer and to bear a shared witness to Jesus Christ.
Cooperative Baptists were blessed by Dr. Callam’s presence among us. At our 2009 General Assembly in Houston, he invited us to see the Baptist World Alliance through the image of the Lord’s Table, where Baptists from around the world gather as equals in Christ. In 2018, after his retirement, he returned to our General Assembly in Dallas to lead a conversation about race, ethnicity and communion. In both settings, he called us to move beyond estrangement and receive one another more fully as members of the one body of Christ.
During Dr. Callam’s leadership, the relationship between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist World Alliance also deepened through shared work in global advocacy, religious liberty and compassionate response to human need. We give thanks for the ways his leadership strengthened our place in the global Baptist family and called all of us toward deeper participation in Christ’s mission in the world.
In these days of grief, we pray that Dulcie and all the Callam family will experience the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit and be held tight in the secure embrace of the love of Christ that never, ever lets us go. We pray that the Jamaica Baptist Union and the Baptist World Alliance family will know the peace that surpasses all understanding. And we pray that all who were shaped by Dr. Callam’s ministry will be renewed in the calling he named so clearly: to live for Jesus and serve the cause of Christ.
On behalf of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, please receive our deepest condolences and the assurance of our prayers. We remember Dr. Callam with love and gratitude, and we thank God for his faithful service to the cause of Christ.
In Christ,
Paul Baxley
Executive Coordinator
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship