MANCHESTER, N.H. (ABP) — In a historic reunion of sorts, an American Baptist body and a group that emerged from the Southern Baptist Convention recently held a joint meeting in New Hampshire.
The American Baptist Churches of Vermont and New Hampshire and the Baptist Fellowship of the Northeast met in tandem May 7-8 in Manchester. ABC of Vermont and New Hampshire is a regional body of the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. — the mainly northern Baptist denomination from which Southern Baptists split in 1845 over slavery.
Meanwhile, the Baptist Fellowship of the Northeast is composed of churches in New York and the New England states that relate to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. CBF is a national body that emerged from the SBC as that denomination veered to the right during the 1980s and '90s.
According to Allen Abbott, executive minister for ABC of Vermont and New Hampshire, about 400 attended the joint session. Ken and Sandy Hale, co-coordinators of the Baptist Fellowship of the Northeast, said about 35 of those attendees were from CBF churches.
“This represents a huge step forward in ABC-CBF relations and the Baptist movement worldwide,” Abbott said, according to the American Baptist News Service. “It's time that freedom-loving Baptists from all over the country find strength in our fellowship together. Our common roots and current mission propel us to a new Baptist vision together.”
The attendees discussed ways the two groups can partner in Kingdom work, including many of the joint missions projects in which their respective national organizations are already engaged. They also took up a special offering of about $10,000 for the Baptist World Alliance. Most observers expect messengers to the SBC's annual meeting in June to vote to sever all of the denomination's ties with the BWA, which is the umbrella group for worldwide Baptists.
Although some supporters have called for a formal reunion between ABC and CBF, officials of both organizations say no such plans are in the works. But Ken Hale said that doesn't preclude “fuller cooperation” between the groups at all levels.
“I think there are ways that both of these groups can be helpful to each other in working together, and can strengthen the Baptist witness — both stateside and around the world,” Hale said.
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