Caribbean Baptist Fellowship

The Caribbean Baptist Fellowship was established in 1970 made up of fourteen conventions/unions/associations in the Caribbean. Today the organization has twenty eight members and affiliates involving three major languages French, Spanish and English.

The first president of the Fellowship was the Rev. Azariah Mckenzie who at the time was serving as the general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union. He served as president for ten years before becoming the full time officer of the fellowship in the capacity of executive secretary/treasurer.

The CBF was able to hire a full time officer because it developed a partnership relationship with the Foreign Mission Board, SBC now the International Mission Board. The FMB heavily funded the operations of the CBF.

Through the support of the FMB, the CBF was able to establish two agencies: Caribbean Christian Publications and The CBF Media Centre. CCP produces culturally relevant Sunday School literature for Caribbean churches and presently operates from Jamaica in a building named after the first president of the CBF and owned by the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship

The CBF Media Centre which originally operated from Nassau, Bahamas was later moved to Hollywood, Florida in a building owned by the International Mission Board. In 1997 the IMB substantially reduced its support for the CBF and the CBF was forced to dissolve its media centre.

Today the CBF operates just one agency, CCP.

In partnership with the Virginia Baptist Mission, the International Mission Board and Baptist World Aid the CBF provides disaster relief training as well as responds to disaster needs in the region.

The operation of the CBF is through its secretariat in Freeport, Bahamas headed by the executive secretary/treasurer Rev. Peter Pinder.

The CBF has three departments: The Caribbean Baptist Women’s Union, The Caribbean Baptist Men and the Caribbean Baptist Youth. The current president of the CBF is Rev. Dr. Burchell Taylor of Jamaica. Meetings involving member bodies are held every two years in one of the member countries.