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Baptists appeal for unity

by
02 November 2006


BAPTISTS preparing to celebrate their unity on Sunday, Baptist World Alliance Day, are appealing to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in the United States to pull back from splitting the alliance when it meets in two weeks’ time (News, 9 January).

The SBC is the largest Baptist denomination in the world, with more than 16 million members in about 42,000 churches in the United States. It has given notice that it intends to pull out of the 44-million strong Baptist World Alliance this October, because it finds the Alliance too liberal. But the final decision has still to be taken at the forthcoming meeting.

Young European Baptists from 16 countries who gathered in Serbia last week appealed to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, which meets on 16 and 17 February. In their appeal, the European Baptist Federation Youth and Children’s Workers Conference said that labelling or judging churches and theologians would not help the SBC. “The mission we have as young Baptists (preaching the good news to all humanity) should not be overshadowed by such internal problems concerning issues of church life and faith.”

The executive committee of the European Baptist Federation, which brings together 800,000 Baptists throughout Europe, also said earlier this month that the split would harm the “witness to the world”.

“One of the biggest tragedies of contemporary Christianity is division. . . Why should Baptists follow this easy pattern?” it asked. The committee proposed that Baptists should instead fight for religious freedom and human rights.

“Why can we not continue to ask together governments and officials to respect religious freedom and give opportunity to Baptists to do their ministry in courntires where democracy does not yet exist?” it suggested.

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