Listen to Rev. Dr. Das Sydney being interviewed by Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling. Das Sydney is a pastor, theologian, and global church leader whose life brought him from India to Africa and then eventually to Canada. He served as the Lead Pastor at Highland Baptist Church in Kitchener for close to 20 years, and has led churches with a heart for preaching, justice, and community care. In this episode, Das reflects on his broad experience within the Church, as a professor at various colleges and as the past President of the Canadian Council of Churches. He believes that the Church is more than just an institution and that it represents the hands and feet of Jesus.

Read the transcript: biblesociety.ca/transcript-scripture-untangled-s10-ep13

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Das Sydney was born in India and moved to Africa with his parents at a very young age. He lived in Ethiopia and Ghana for a total of 14 years before immigrating to Canada in 1969. This rich and varied background has given him a profound appreciation and sensitivity towards people, cultures, and differing expressions of faith around the world.

He has served in the parish contexts in both Ontario and Nova Scotia where his ministry has maintained the importance of preaching as a key element of worship. He has also emphasized the dynamic union of the message of Jesus with the practical care of people. It has led to a compassion towards those in need, advocacy for the marginalized and offering care where there is spiritual need.

He has served as the Lead Pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Kitchener for almost 19 years. On his recent retirement from Highland, he was given the honorific title, Minister Emeritus.

He has helped churches engage in long term planning and helped them find their calling or mission, in service and witness. While the Lead Pastor at the historic Wolfville Baptist Church in Nova Scotia, the church attained the highest membership since records were kept. He spear-headed the Out of the Cold program at a Toronto Church, helped organize a variety of helping ministries for refugees and new Canadians, and has been involved with significant reconciliation efforts with our First Nations neighbours.

He is currently the immediate Past President of the Canadian Council of Churches, a Past President of the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec, and was the chair of the writing team that produced This We Believe, an important document that outlines various emphases in faith and practice among Canadian Baptists. He serves on the Leadership Commission of the Baptist World Alliance and is on the Board of Indwell – which offers supportive housing for the marginalized. He is also the Moderator of the South Central Association of Baptist Churches.

Das has graduate degrees from the University of Toronto, McMaster University, and a doctorate from Northern Seminary in Chicago. He has taught Practical Theology as an adjunct at Acadia Divinity College (Wolfville, NS), McMaster Divinity College (Hamilton, ON), and Communication at Emmanuel Bible College (Kitchener, ON).