By Robert Dilday
The Baptist General Association of Virginia has upheld a leadership committee’s decision to end the state association’s affiliation with a church that ordained an openly gay man to the ministry earlier this fall.
In the opening session of its annual meeting Nov. 13, BGAV messengers voted 426-164 against a motion to refer the decision for review by a study committee.
In October, the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s executive committee asked Ginter Park Baptist Church in Richmond to withdraw its BGAV membership by Dec. 31, after the congregation ordained an openly gay man in September. If Ginter Park declines to withdraw by that date, the BGAV will no longer accept its financial contributions, essentially ending the church’s affiliation with the state association.
At the BGAV meeting, Richmond pastor Jim Somerville said dismissal of a church is too significant to leave to a small committee.
“I believe the executive committee acted in accordance with BGAV principles, but this is a big decision and the executive committee shouldn’t make it alone,” said Somerville, pastor of First Baptist Church in Richmond.
He added he didn’t want to open a discussion about homosexuality or church autonomy on the floor of the BGAV. Instead, he offered a motion to refer the action to an ad hoc study committee to be appointed by the BGAV president, which would report at the 2013 annual BGAV meeting.
“I’d like to think that the newspaper headlines after this meeting will be that we focused on missions, not that we argued about homosexuality,” he said.
Messengers spoke both for and against Somerville’s motion prior to the vote.
“The executive committee’s action is consistent with what we have done before,” said Travis Collins, pastor of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond. “It’s consistent with my understanding of Scripture and probably with the understanding of the vast majority of Virginia Baptists.”
This would mark the first time the BGAV has dismissed a church over homosexuality, but it has addressed the issue in the past. A 1993 resolution called homosexual behavior “sinful and unacceptable to Christians” and that statement is typically included in the state association’s identity documents. A report from the BGAV’s Christian life committee which drew the same conclusion was “commended to the churches” in 1998.
The BGAV’s ties to both the University of Richmond and Averett University were ended over homosexuality, though Averett’s association was restored last year when the school clarified its stance in a way the BGAV regarded as compatible with its position.
Ginter Park Baptist Church was organized in 1916 on Richmond’s Northside and is also affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists. Another affiliation — the Richmond Baptist Association — is under study after the RBA appointed a committee Oct. 21 to bring a recommendation to the group’s spring meeting.