CLUJ, Romania (ABP) — In a move signaling a renewed interest in partnering with the European Baptist Federation, Romanian Baptists have elected Otniel Bunaciu as their president.
The May 18 decision of the 34th congress of the Baptist Union of Romania was significant because Bunaciu, vice president of Bucharest Baptist Theological Seminary, decisively beat Onisim Mladin, who was seen as the choice of the last president, Paul Negrut.
Negrut's presidency was seen by many as a divisive force among Romanian Baptists, the second-largest Baptist body in Europe. He led the union to quit participating in the European Baptist body in the 1990s and is an apologist for the Southern Baptist Convention's campaign against the Baptist World Alliance. Mladin had been general secretary of the union.
Negrut is president of the ultraconservative Emanuel Baptist University and Seminary in Oradea, which receives funding from Southern Baptist sources. He recently was investigated on charges of plagiarism of an American book for use in a seminary class on Christian ethics.
As outgoing president, Negrut will become vice president responsible for educational programs. Ionel Tutac was elected as general secretary of the 100,000-member union.
Tony Peck, general secretary for the European Baptist Federation, lamented the distance between Romanian Baptists and his organization and welcomed the shift.
“We have regretted very much that over these past 10 years we have not had the close ties with the Romanian Baptist Union which we once enjoyed,” Peck said. “We look forward to a renewing and deepening of our relationship in the days to come,” he said, adding Bunaciu had proven himself as a gifted leader.
In a press statement, Bunaciu said his election signals a new unity for Baptists in the former communist country.
“Despite some differences, the Baptist Union of Romania is more united than ever before,” he said, calling Romanian Baptists “Bible-believing people who are committed disciples of Jesus Christ and have the goal of bringing the gospel to a needy world.”
Bunaciu also called for increased Baptist work for social causes, saying a church that doesn't help the poor is poor itself.
“We want to be happy not only about that which God has done in our midst but also about that which God is doing through other brothers and sisters throughout the world,” said Bunaciu.
In other business, the Romanian delegates decreed that Baptist pastors should not be active in political parties and called on the Ministry of Culture to permit the teaching of creation as an alternative to the theory of evolution. They also invited representatives of the Baptist World Alliance and European Baptist Federation to meet with them in order to explain the theological foundations of their organizations.
The Baptist Union of Romania is the second largest Baptist body in Europe. Under Negrut, the union ended its longtime participation in the European Baptist Federation in the 1990s, although Negrut was never able to convince Romanians Baptists to formally withdraw. Negrut endorsed the SBC's withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance.
In 2004, the Union and the Convention of the Hungarian Baptist Churches of Romania entered into a three-year evangelism partnership with the SBC-affiliated Missouri Baptist Convention.
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