WASHINGTON -- Frank Adams, general secretary of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship, died Dec. 27 in Kumasi, Ghana. His age was unavailable.

Before heading up the African region of the Baptist World Alliance, Adams was the general secretary for the Baptist Convention of Ghana. He died after several months of battling chronic illness.

All Africa Baptist Fellowship, one of the six regional branches of the Baptist World Alliance, began in 1982 in Brakenhurst, Kenya. It includes 53 Baptist bodies, representing 6.6 million Baptists in 27,173 churches.

Denton Lotz, BWA general secretary, called Adams a committed Christian with “a vision for encouraging African Baptists to be empowered in leadership and in winning Africa for Christ.”

“He was a person of peace,” Lotz said in a BWA statement. “With quiet and calm skills of reconciliation, he continued to unite Ghanaian Baptists and helped with his team of leaders to prepare for the present growth of Baptists of Ghana.”

Lotz also credited Adams, a native of Ghana, with a “strong and quiet determination” to speak for social justice. That gentle leadership made him a “prophetic voice” among African Baptists, he said. “I never saw him angry or upset. He was indeed a faithful follower of Jesus Christ and his personal life and public witness are a testimony to his deep commitment to the gospel.”

Adams graduated from Baptist Theological Seminary in Ruschlikon, Switzerland, and the Oxford Center for Mission Studies in Oxford, England.

Adams is survived by his wife, Selina; two sons; and one daughter.

-30-

---