Baptists
vote against
women as pastors
The
Layman Online
Thursday, June 15, 2000
Highlights of the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention
in Orlando, Fla.:
- By a show of hands, delegates revised a statement of
faith to say that women should not serve as pastors.
Nonetheless, the statement is not binding on the
denomination's 41,000 congregations which would remain
free to ordain women and call them as pastors.
Approximately 100 women are currently pastors of local
congregations.
- More than two dozen protestors in a demonstration
organized by Soulforce were arrested and charged with
illegal assembly. Approximately 100 protestors
participated in the demonstration, most choosing not to
break the law. (Next stop for Soulforce's traveling
protest movement is the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (USA) in Long Beach, Calif., on
Sunday, June 25, during the assembly's worship service.)
- Dr. James G. Merritt, 47, pastor of the 11,000-member
First Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga., was elected
president of the convention. "I will lift high the
banner of truth found in God's inerrant Word," said
Merritt, a trustee of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.
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