Virginia Baptists have approved a joint statement developed with Averett University leaders that will end their 145-year-old ties to the school.
The Virginia Baptist Mission Board adopted the statement during its spring meeting April 6. Averett's trustees are set to consider the statement at their regular meeting April 15.
The vote by the Mission Board — the executive arm of the Baptist General Association of Virginia-ends a century and a half relationship with the school in Danville — a relationship clouded the past two years by disagreements over homosexuality.
The most recent flap-the celebration of a gay pride week by a school-approved gay advocacy group-prompted the latest discussion and the joint statement.
“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, which was drafted by Mission Board leaders and Averett's president and trustee chair at a March 17 meeting.
In practical terms, “separate paths” will mean dissolving a covenant approved last year between the BGAV and Averett, and ending the BGAV's long practice of nominating a portion of Averett's board of trustees.
Last year, in response to an earlier disagreement over homosexuality, the BGAV redirected its annual financial allocation to Averett — in recent years totalling about $350,000 — to a new theological education initiative in Roanoke. The joint statement stipulates that responsibility for the Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network, which was to be jointly administered by Averett and the Mission Board, will be assumed solely by the BGAV.
“We take this action without bitterness or ill will but with a strong resolve,” said BGAV executive director John Upton, an Averett graduate. “Our position has long been clear and decisive that homosexuality is a lifestyle that goes against Scripture and is contrary to stated Virginia Baptist core values.”
In 1993 the BGAV adopted a resolution-now regarded as part of the state association's “core values”-which affirms “the biblical teaching that homosexual behavior is sinful and unacceptable for Christians.”
Averett president Richard Pfau did not return phone calls to the Religious Herald April 7. But he told the Roanoke Times that day, “What we've recognized is that the [BGAV] has a set of core values and there's no reason why they should compromise those. Likewise, Averett has a set of core values,” about academic inquiry, for instance, “and unfortunately at this point in time, they're not compatible.”
The national debate over sexuality issues left both university and Baptist leaders with “a sense that we're caught up in something none of us have figured out how to resolve,” Pfau told the Roanoke paper.
Averett, affiliated with the BGAV since the school's founding in 1859, drew the ire of some Virginia Baptists in the fall of 2003 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, where he reportedly said that the God revealed in a literal reading of the Bible is “immoral” and “unbelievable.”
In response the BGAV escrowed funds allocated to the school and last December, in consultation with Averett, used the money to create the Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network to train ministers and laypeople in the mountainous region west of Roanoke. The network was to operate directly under Averett's president'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 last month when they learned the school's Gay/Straight Alliance hosted a gay pride week on campus in February.
Though Pfau said the series of events was not endorsed by the school, he acknowledged the Gay/Straight Alliance was a recognized student organization whose administrative advisor is the dean of students.
Upton and Pfau met March 17 to discuss the issue. Also attending the meeting were Joe Vipperman, chair of Averett's board of trustees; BGAV president Richard Smith; BGAV first vice president Bert Browning; BGAV treasurer Eddie Stratton; and David Shelton, a member of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the leaders drafted the joint statement but agreed not to release its content until it was presented to their respective governing boards. Pfau and Vipperman reportedly communicated the statement to most of the school's trustees on April 4.
It's not clear what would happen if Averett's trustees decline to adopt the statement at their meeting April 15. Though the statement holds out the possibility that the BGAV's and Averett's “paths might join again at a future time,” Upton said Averett would have to take “decisive action” to retain Virginia Baptist ties.
Pfau told the Roanoke Times that Averett's trustees will have to “look at and think carefully about our mission.” He said he believes “our heritage points toward remaining Baptist” in orientation.
The school currently requires a few religion courses of all graduates, he said, “but I am not sure we have a religion requirement because we are Baptist. … We're not indoctrinating students with a particular set of beliefs and values,” Pfau said, “but teaching them to think for themselves, a great Baptist tradition.”
The full text of the joint statement:
“We honor one another's integrity, share appreciation for each other's missions and recognize and celebrate 145 years of shared ministry. We join in anticipating great promise for the jointly developed Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network.
“Because of our current differences, we now resolve to walk separate paths with blessings on one another, recognizing that these paths may join again at a future time.
“As a result of walking separate paths, we agree that:
“– The covenant of April 2004 is dissolved,
“– Averett will return unused funds released by the BGAV for the Southwest Virginia Christian Leadership Network, and the BGAV will assume responsibility for this important program,
“– The BGAV will no longer recommend trustees for Averett's board and
“– The BGAV and Averett will join in supporting an active and vigorous Baptist Student Union at Averett.”