Like it long has in the U.S., disagreement over same-sex marriage and congregational autonomy are also driving a wedge between Baptists in Australia.
Divisions began to simmer in 2022 when the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory Baptist Association voted to require churches and ministers to affirm an exclusively heterosexual view of marriage.
“Marriage is a covenant relationship ordained by God as a lifelong faithful union of one man and one woman. Sexual intimacy outside such a marriage relationship is incompatible with God’s intention for us as his people,” the statement said.
In response, a group of clergy and congregations in 2023 formed Open Baptists, a new association for LGBTQ-inclusive churches and for those dedicated to the Baptist principles of church autonomy and freedom of conscience.
The New South Wales association finally had enough of the dissent and voted in May to expel Canberra Baptist Church in Kingston and Hamilton Baptist Church in Newcastle during its annual assembly in Sydney. Seaforth Baptist Church faces expulsion at a later assembly, according to The Other Cheek blogsite.
Leaders of the disfellowshipped churches stood by their rejection of the marriage statement and emphasized the association’s error in disregarding congregational autonomy.
Belinda Groves
“We believe very much that we have freedom of conscience,” Canberra Baptist Church Pastor Belinda Groves said in an Australian Broadcasting Corp. report. “We can read the Bible really thoughtfully and faithfully, and we can come to different conclusions, and that’s OK.”
There is even a collegial agree-to-disagree attitude about same-sex unions among members of the congregation, she added. “For our church, we can have people here who have a very traditional view of marriage … and then we have people who are very open to having same-sex couples, and couples in de facto relationships, as part of the church.”
This development echoes the high-profile splits between Baptists in the U.S. and elsewhere over LGBTQ inclusion and same-sex marriage.
The Southern Baptist Convention has become well-known for ejecting congregations over LGBTQ inclusion and the ordination of women.
Disputes within the American Baptist Churches in the USA have led to the ejection of congregations and inspired the 1993 formation of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, now an international organization of more than 160 churches from a variety of Baptist traditions.
Canada has seen inter-Baptist strife, as well. In 1993, the Gathering of Baptists was founded to embrace churches and clergy on a range of issues at odds with conservatives. These include backing fired seminary professors, inclusion of LGBTQ people, supporting women in ministry and refusing to endorse credal statements on the biblical definition of marriage and other issues.
The group has about 100 individual members with some congregations currently seeking membership. A sister group, the Canadian Association for Baptist Freedoms, has close to 20 member congregations.
Dave Ogilvie
But there are some notable differences between Baptist disputes in Canada and the U.S., said Dave Ogilvie, Gathering chair and pastor of Burlington Baptist Church in Ontario.
“To my knowledge, no congregations have been disfellowshipped here. Some of the more fundamentalist congregations who were pushing for our disfellowship grew tired of waiting and left the larger Baptist fold to find fellowship among kindred spirits elsewhere,” Ogilvie explained. “What this has done is to take some pressure off the more moderate leadership to have us removed. So, for now at least, progressive congregations such as the one I serve are feeling much less threatened and more tolerated under the Baptist tent.”
The control Australian Baptist groups have over clergy gives the ongoing split over same-sex marriage a range of different consequences from similar divisions in other countries.
In the U.S., ministers in the SBC, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and in many historic Black denominations are ordained by local congregations. But in Australia, clergy are ordained through regional associations.
As a result, churches kicked out of the New South Wales body will lose legal, insurance and administrative support and their ministers will lose accreditation for public roles such as officiating weddings, according to the Australian Broadcasting report.
Open Baptists currently reports seven congregations as members including those ejected and facing ejection and “Victorian Churches who opposed what is seen as creeping centralization in the Baptist Union of Victoria,” John Sandeman blogged on The Other Cheek in April.
“The refusnik churches have chosen not to quietly resign … but to challenge the assembly to vote them out.”
Other congregations in the association are questioning why they have not been targeted because of their progressive stances, the blog added. “The Open Baptists take up a protest position. The refusnik churches have chosen not to quietly resign from the NSW/ACT Baptist Association, but to challenge the assembly to vote them out.”
The association, which said it holds no animosity against Canberra and Hamilton Baptist churches, also adopted a statement supporting congregational authority on issues of doctrine, values and worship. “Nevertheless, Baptist churches usually choose to associate together to mutually discern the mind of Christ so that in a partnership of support and care based on shared convictions, objects and values, together we might more effectively engage in mission and represent Christ to the world in which we live and serve.”
Meanwhile, neither of the ejected churches has backed down on its rejection of the marriage statement and report increased support for doing so.
Andrew Dodd
Hamilton Baptist Church’s stance on the issue has drawn LGBTQ members and others attracted to a setting open to different viewpoints on Scripture and theology, co-pastor Andrew Dodd said in a Newcastle Weekly report.
“We picked up people who were disillusioned with mainstream churches who didn’t let you think outside the box,” he said. “We attracted some who were wanting a more open discussion about faith, rather than being told what to believe.”
Yet others were attracted by the church’s adherence to historic Baptist distinctives such as the priesthood of all believers, soul competence and the independent polity of each congregation.
“Baptist churches usually run their own affairs with very little connection to the association,” Dodd said. “So, on a weekly basis it (the expulsion) won’t really change a lot, except we feel a lot more free.”
Open Baptists will be guided by historic Baptist principles and by valuing every individual voice in decision making, said Groves, who serves as chair of the organization.
“There is something wonderful about forming a new association where people are welcome, regardless of their sexuality or their gender, to come and use the gifts and the calling that they have from God and to be part of a church where we can proclaim the gospel and where the message that we are sharing isn’t all tied up in people’s sexuality.”
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Letter to the Editor: Baptists in NSW/ACT have made a bad decision