RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia Baptist committee exploring a possible renewal of Baptist General Association of Virginia ties with Averett University — ties dissolved in 2005 in a disagreement over homosexuality — has seen “positive” progress, says the committee’s chair.
The committee, formed last fall, held its second meeting April 26 on Averett’s Danville, Va., campus, said Jeff Bloomer, a retired Culpeper, Va., public school administrator who leads the committee. An earlier meeting on March 24 was held at the Virginia Baptist Resource Center in Richmond, Va.
“The committee has held two meetings to discuss the topics of mutual interest,” Bloomer said in a statement released on the committee’s behalf. “The committee has been thorough and deliberate during discussions. Progress, which is going very well, is positive.”
Averett’s 145-year-old ties with the Baptist General Association of Virginia ended in 2005.
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Averett president Tiffany Franks, who was elected head of the 900-student school in 2008, declined additional comment, saying the committee statement “speaks to where we are right now.”
“It reflects the status of where we are in the process,” she said.
Both Bloomer and Franks confirmed the request was initiated by the university last year. In November the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s executive committee authorized BGAV president Bob Bass to form a committee to meet with Averett representatives.
Averett was affiliated with the BGAV from the school’s founding in 1859 until 2005, when the relationship was ended following a 15-month dispute over homosexuality. In the fall of 2003, the school drew the ire of some Virginia Baptists when the chair of its religion department wrote an article published in a Danville newspaper endorsing the ordination of an openly gay Episcopal bishop. At about the same time, John Shelby Spong, a controversial retired Episcopal bishop, delivered two lectures on campus, in which he reportedly said the God revealed in a literal reading of the Bible is “immoral” and “unbelievable.”
Following a series of discussions with then Averett president Richard Pfau, the BGAV diverted funds allocated to the university to create the Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network (now the Christian Leadership Network) to train ministers and laypeople in the mountainous region west of Roanoke. The network was to operate directly under Pfau’s office and would not draw its teachers from Averett's faculty. The agreement appeared to open the way for the BGAV to maintain its ties with the school.
However, Virginia Baptist leaders' confidence in the agreement was shaken in early 2005 when they learned the school's Gay/Straight Alliance hosted a gay pride week on campus.
Pfau said the series of events was not endorsed by the school, but he acknowledged the Gay/Straight Alliance was a recognized student organization whose administrative advisor was the dean of students.
Following a meeting between Pfau and BGAV executive director John Upton, the two released a statement — later endorsed both by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and Averett’s trustees — that effectively ended the 145-year relationship.
“Because of our current differences we now resolve to walk separate paths with blessings on one another, recognizing that these paths might join again at a future time,” said the joint statement.
It’s not clear whether a renewal of ties would restore BGAV funding to Averett, which totaled $350,000 annually when the relationship ended. Also unclear is whether the BGAV would nominate a portion of Averett’s board of trustees, as it did prior to 2005.
In addition to Bloomer, both Bass and Upton serve on the BGAV committee in an ex officio capacity. Other members are two former BGAV presidents — Darrell Foster, a Virginia Beach, Va., attorney, and Tim Madison, pastor of Mechanicsville (Va.) Baptist Church — and Kevin James, pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Sparta, Va., and a former BGAV second vice president.
Averett’s representatives in the discussion include Franks; Dan Carlton, pastor of Downtown Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va., and an Averett trustee; Gary Tucker, associate professor of computer science and math at Averett; and Jamie Williford, Averett’s chaplain.
The date of the committee’s next meeting was not announced.