The Southern Baptist Convention has told organizers of Christian Churches Together in the USA, a fledgling ecumenical organization, that it has no interest in joining.
The new organization, set to formally launch next fall, aims to bring Catholics, mainline Protestants, Orthodox Christians, black churches, evangelicals and Pentecostals together for the first time.
“For the most part, we don't do ecumenism because you usually have to give up some doctrinal beliefs or ignore or emphasize others to work with folks that really aren't on the same path, share the same doctrines, the same beliefs-particularly about salvation,” said Martin King, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board.
Organizers had hoped to include Southern Baptists, the nation's largest Protestant denomination with 16 million members. Other evangelical groups, such as the Salvation Army, the Evangelical Covenant Church and World Vision, have endorsed CCT.
“We just don't see that it would help us in our efforts to help our Southern Baptist churches share our understanding of how to be saved, so we have no plans to participate,” King told Religion News Service.
So far, about two dozen denominations have formally endorsed CCT, and organizers cite interest from at least a dozen more. Officials say they hope to get to know each other better before committing the group to formal action.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted in November to join CCT, the first time American Catholics have committed to work with Protestants. Catholics and Southern Baptists are not members of the National Council of Churches, which represents 36 mainline Protestant and Orthodox churches.
Earlier this year the Southern Baptist Convention voted to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance, accusing the global body of a “leftward drift.”
Religion News Service