Baptists from across the country will be travelling to Brighton on Friday (4 May) for the Baptist Assembly, the biggest Baptist event of the year.

Over 2,000 people are expected to attend the four-day gathering of the Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB) and BMS World Mission.

The Assembly theme, In Search of Freedom, will mark the bicentenary of the passing of the act to abolish the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, as well as looking at modern day slavery today – including the launch of ‘In Transit’, a new campaign against human trafficking.

There will also be a public resolution supporting migrant workers, calling upon the Government to provide adequate legal protection for them.

BMS World Mission will highlight ways in which it has led campaigns for freedom in the past, and their intentions for the future.

As well as including sessions led by key BMS partners from Jamaica and India, General Director Alistair Brown will challenge delegates to face up to slavery of the present as well as the past, arguing that UK lifestyles still condemn many in the world to a lifetime of bonded labour and poverty.

For Jonathan Edwards it will be his first Baptist Assembly as BUGB General Secretary after being voted into the position at the assembly last year. “Baptist Assembly is an incredibly important part of our life together as Baptists and I have always found it an encouraging and challenging occasion” he said.