RICHMOND — Seven weeks after the Richmond Baptist Association narrowly voted to retain the membership of a church which ordained a gay man to the ministry, about a quarter of the association’s congregations have ended ties with it or are reviewing their affiliation.
But the pastor of the church at the heart of the controversy said in an open letter May 5 she hopes the association will “commit to continued fellowship and dialogue in hopes of discerning together what the future of the RBA holds.”
Mandy England Cole
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“It is difficult work to be unified in mission and ministry when there are differences in scriptural interpretation,” wrote Mandy England Cole, pastor of Ginter Park Baptist Church in Richmond. “However, it is not impossible work. Not when there is commitment and dependence upon the Holy Spirit to guide us.”
In the letter, distributed to RBA leadership and the staff of each affiliated church, Cole said some claim the RBA’s crisis “rests squarely upon the shoulders” of Ginter Park and that if the church “simply left the association we could save it.”
But she disputed that view, adding: “The responsibility to address the challenges before us do not rest solely upon the shoulders of the RBA staff and leadership either. It is the responsibility of each of us who are committed to the mission and ministry of the RBA.”
Last September Ginter Park ordained Brandon Scott McGuire, a gay member of the church who says he feels called to minister to persons with disabilities and special needs and to their families.
Two months later, the Baptist General Association of Virginia ended its ties with the church, which had been a member of the organization for nearly a century. But on March 19, after more than an hour of discussion, the RBA voted 176-158 at a called meeting to endorse a committee’s recommendation that it “embrace Ginter Park Baptist Church as a sister church” — coincidentally, one in whose sanctuary the RBA was organized in 1951.
The response to the vote has placed the RBA in a “serious situation,” said director of missions Michael Robinson, the association’s top executive. Five of the RBA’s original 69 congregations have withdrawn membership and another 11 are “seriously reviewing” their affiliation, he said.
Volunteers at Camp Alkulana, one of the Richmond Baptist Association's ministries, refurbish a building there.
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Those 16 congregations collectively represent about $250,000 in contributions, Robinson said — nearly 40 percent of the association’s annual budget of $626,000. The bulk of the budget funds three inner-city ministries — the Church Hill Christian Wellness Center, Oregon Hill Baptist Center and South Richmond Baptist Center — and Camp Alkulana, a residential summer camp in the Allegheny Mountains for inner-city children and youths.
“But we’re looking at churches which represent not only dollars but also volunteers at the mission centers and Alkulana,” Robinson added. “They represent in excess of 13,000 members” — anywhere from a fourth to a third of the association’s total church membership, he said.
In April, RBA leaders cancelled the association’s annual spring meeting, at which they had planned to launch an association-wide focus on Operation Inasmuch, a national initiative which encourages churches to engage in acts of service in their communities.
But the March 19 vote was a “redefinition” of the association, Robinson said.
“The attendance from churches who did not feel they could come and endorse a new definition of the RBA — that attendance was going to be abysmal and it would be a poor launch for a movement in the association,” he said. “It would have been jeopardized.”
On April 30 Cole, along with three other Ginter Park leaders, discussed the situation with Robinson, joined by the RBA’s moderator and finance committee chair and the directors of the three ministry centers.
“We were presented with an emotional plea to help protect these ministries,” Cole told her congregation in an account of the meeting published in the church’s newsletter. “We were presented with numbers to support their opinion that the potential loss of these churches outweighs what the RBA would lose if we (Ginter Park and those other churches who would stand with us) were not part of the RBA. They stopped just short of asking us to leave the association for the sake of the ministry centers and Camp Alkulana.”
Robinson said May 6 he initiated the meeting “to share with [Ginter Park leaders] the impact of [the vote] and to let them know the serious situation we find ourselves in. “
“Since this whole event had centered around an issue they had brought to the floor, we thought they would be interested in knowing the impact,” he said. “They had remained in the association because they said they were interested in the association and how it would move forward. And we wanted to see what can be done in a helpful way.”
Robinson said it was one of several conversations he’s engaged in “all over to association on how we can move forward to serve our city. This ministry of 65 years of stellar service is deeply threatened.”
In her open letter, Cole said Ginter Park regards its continuing partnership with the RBA as “a gift” and is committed to “discerning together the future of the RBA.”
“Is it possible for us to come together?” she asked. “Might we commit ourselves to the work? Might we commit to continued fellowship and dialogue in hopes of discerning together what the future of the RBA holds? Might we commit to tempering our reflex reactions so that Camp Alkulana and the centers are not held ransom while we argue?
“What if instead of talking about one another, we sat down and talked with one another? What if we alI committed ourselves to refrain from changing the level of our connection and support of the RBA for one year while we focused on collectively addressing the challenges and discord between us?”
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.