The Baptist Union of Wales is a Union of eleven Baptist Associations, representing over 320 churches and 8,000 members across the country. The Union is made up of two ‘Wings’, namely the English Language Wing and Welsh Language Wing. Both ‘Wings’ work closely together but hold their Annual Meetings separately.
Annual Assembly
The Assemblies are the voice of the Baptist Union of Wales. They meet at least once a year. All those representing churches and others have a right to vote but a wider audience is welcome. The Assemblies receive reports and consider resolutions from the Council.
Councils
The Councils (Welsh and English Language) are the key representative bodies of the Union and meet at least annually. They are responsible for appointing, supporting, and encouraging the trustees; reviewing the life of the Union; advising on necessary changes; establishing Committees; presenting matters to the Assemblies; to consider emergency resolutions which cannot be presented to the Assemblies.
BUW Trustees
The Trustees are legally responsible and accountable for making sure that the BUW is doing what it was set up to do. The Trustees however in undertaking their duties recognize the key roles played by the Councils and Assemblies. They meet five times a year:
The day to day work is delegated to the following four Boards within the BUW which seek to drive ministry, mission, social responsibility and resources.
Ministry Board
The Ministry Board consists of the Secretaries and Superintendents of each Association along with representatives from the SWBC and Coleg Gwyn. It meets twice a year.
Mission Board
The Mission Board is made up of representatives from the Associations who are practitioners or hold a mission interest. Some Board members are co-opted to bring additional experience or expertise. We meet twice a year to consider the mission priorities of the Union and set a work plan to ensure that those priorities are developed and implemented. When particular areas of work are required a sub-group of the Mission Board is tasked to report back to the Board any findings and recommendations. The Mission Board reports to Council and through the Director of Mission reports annually to the Trustees.
Church and Social Responsibility
The purpose of the Board is to maintain an overview of third party groups (such as the Living Room, Citizens Cymru, Church Action on Poverty, Network for Racial Justice etc.) to facilitate appeals on behalf of Christian Aid and BMS and to prepare statements for public release in relation to social issues encouraging churches to take action when appropriate.
Finance Committee
The purpose of the Finance Committee is to set the budget and monitor expenditure.