Eastern Baptist Association new Regional Minister
The Eastern Baptist Association (EBA) has appointed Rev David Mayne as its new Regional Minister Team Leader serving the 170 Baptist churches across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire and he has spoken of his commitment to working alongside other churches.
Rev David Mayne was Lead Pastor at Shoeburyness & Thorpe Bay Baptist Church in Essex and before that served for six years at Selsdon Baptist Church in Croydon, and as an elected church leader in Brentwood and then Winchester.
David has always been engaged with wider Baptist life, including serving as Moderator of Baptist Union Council from 2015-2021, and being part of teams working across the European Baptist Federation from to 2018-2022. From 2012-2016 he served as Moderator of the EBA and during that time was able to get a good appreciation of the way the EBA works and some of the challenges the EBA faces.
David said: “Throughout my ministry I have also supported national Baptist life in a variety of ways, including through the work of the Joint Public Issues Team (JPIT), a joint endeavour of the Methodist Church, United Reformed Church, Baptist Union, and Church of Scotland. JPIT seeks to help churches work together for peace and justice through listening, learning, praying, and taking action on public policy issues.”
Throughout their appointment process the Association emphasised their need for someone to help the EBA navigate through a period of significant change with creativity and a heart for building relationships.
Former EBA Chair of Trustees, Rev Fiona Heddle said, ‘Our search for a new Regional Minister Team Leader has at times felt a long one but God has been at work, and we are delighted to welcome David to the EBA team; we look forward to his collaborative leadership. We face some big challenges as an Association, David is a creative, strategic thinker with a generous, kind heart who seeks to follow where the Holy Spirit leads.’
Speaking on his appointment, David said: “It is a constant joy to see the impact churches have in working together to speak out on the environment and on poverty, pooling our ideas and resources to better become a society which welcomes the stranger and priorities the marginalised. This work, alongside our historic commitments to build friendships with one another and live well together in our local contexts, can bring energy and life to our ecumenism.
“Engaging with social and political issues also provides our churches with opportunities to build links with others in our communities. Many of our Foodbanks have volunteers from beyond the churches that host them, and there are plenty of people in every village, town and city who want us to do more to tackle climate change. We will be far more effective at bringing Kingdom change about if we can develop relationships with the people of peace around us.
“Far from being irrelevant or hunkered down, our churches can be hubs of connection and change, bringing new life and the justice of the Kingdom of God more into view, and into the daily experiences of our communities.”
David continued: “As Baptist churches, we always start at the grassroots. Change starts with individuals working together and local churches partnering with one another. It is my hope that in the years ahead we can continue to play our part in those partnerships, working with sisters and brothers from other denominations to create places of sanctuary and joy for everyone.
“It’s not always easy work, I know, but I have been privileged to see it happen in so many places, and I hear such excellent stories from so many of our churches. I’m very much looking forward to visiting groups and projects in the years ahead, and to hearing more from across Norfolk and Waveney.
“I will miss my ministry at STBBC very much, but the call to this new role has grown and been made clear in lots of ways over recent weeks. I’m excited about getting started and encouraging and supporting all our EBA ministers and churches. God is at work doing new things inside and outside the Church, and so our mission and ministry must always be looking for signs of the Spirit, trusting that the future is bigger than the past. I’m pleased to be part of leading the EBA into that future.”
easternbaptist.org.uk