Breakaway Baptist group files papers Religion Today Monday, March 27, 2000 Four prominent Baptists have filed legal papers to form a breakaway denomination to rival the Southern Baptist Convention. They incorporated and registered the name Baptist Convention of the Americas in 1998, acting quietly to prevent further discord in the nation's largest denomination, news reports said. Founding members consider themselves moderates compared to the more conservative SBC. They are Herbert H. Reynolds, ex-president of Baylor University; John F. Baugh, a Houston businessman who financed moderate organizations in other states, Baptist Press said; W. Winfred Moore, former pastor of First Baptist Church in Amarillo, Texas, and an unsuccessful candidate for the SBC presidency; and Paul Powell, a Tyler, Texas, pastor and former head of the SBC pension board. The new denomination exists only on paper, but the likelihood that a moderate group will actually break away from the SBC is increasing, Powell told the Tyler Morning Telegraph. "The gap is widening," he said. The Baptist Convention of the Americas could form churches in North, Central, and South America, say its articles of incorporation, filed in Texas. It also could do missionary work, hold public worship, provide education through schools, colleges, and universities, and minister to the sick and orphans.

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