1st Woman President of Asian Baptist Consortium Dies

Monday, Jun. 29, 2009 Posted: 6:07:38PM HKT

Baptist leaders around the world lamented the passing of the first woman leader of a regional network of seminaries last week.

Lilian Lim Hui Kiau, President of the Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary (ABGTS), died on Thursday, June 25, in Singapore, the Baptist World Alliance reported.

The death of the leading Asian theological educator is believed to be linked with the rupture of her aorta while she attended a conference in Prague held last July, shortly after which she fell ill, a BWA spokesperson told Associated Baptist Press. Lim, 50, was born with a connective-tissue disorder that weakens major arteries known as Marfan’s syndrome.

BWA General Secretary or CEO Neville Callam remembers Lim as a “fine person with an alert mind and a loving and gentle spirit” and mourned her demise as the loss of the BWA of a “gifted theologian” and “sensitive soul” and of the ABGTS of a “distinguished leader”.

The BWA is a fellowship of 214 Baptist conventions and unions comprising a membership of more than 37 million baptised believers and a community of 105 million. The BWA began in London, England, in 1905 at the first Baptist World Congress.

Lim has also been described by colleagues as “a simple lady with a simple faith”. Others referred to her as an inspirational figure, with unforgettable vision and energy for theological empowerment in Asia and beyond.

A Chinese Singaporean, she lived an illustrious Christian life from her very birth and youth, battling a lifelong illness and opposition from her traditional Chinese family due to her early conversion to Christianity.

She was one of the subjects of the 2003 BWA book Stars Lighting up the Sky: Stories of Contemporary Christian Heroes by Tony Cupit, a former BWA director, in which she was described as believer who consistently “maintained deep faith in Christ despite looking death in the face, enduring pain and other challenges to life and faith”.

Before entering fulltime ministry as a pastor and academician, she had worked as a journalist and public-relations professional, according to the ABP.

She received her theologian training at Baptist Theological Seminary here and earned her doctorate degree at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, in the U.S. in 1994.

Previously Professor of New Testament and Academic Dean at the BTS, one of the nine schools that form the ABGTS consortium she eventually came to lead, Lim served on the executive board of the Singapore Baptist Convention and the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation (APBF), one of the six regional fellowships of the BWA.

She was also a member of the board of directors of Global Women, a mainly Baptist organisation dedicated to empowering women for service and mission globally, and to creating partnerships across national borders and artificial divisions.

Lim was a member of the BWA team participating in the ongoing Baptist-Roman Catholic Conversations between the BWA and the Vatican.

She presented papers on various topics at BWA and APBF events, including at the BWA-sponsored Baptist International Conference on Theological Education in Prague, Czech Republic, in July 2008.

She wrote one of the Bible studies that will be used during the 20th Baptist World Congress to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2010.

A memorial service was held in honour of Lim at Calvary Baptist Church yesterday, followed by a cremation.

Nathanael Ng
Christian Post Reporter