LYNCHBURG, Va. — Virginia Baptists will consider in November a proposal to renew ties to Averett University, a 152-year-old school in Danville, Va., whose relationship with the state’s Baptists was severed in 2005 in a dispute over homosexuality.
The Virginia Baptist Mission Board, during its fall meeting Oct. 4-5 at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center, adopted the recommendation to be presented at the Baptist General Association of Virginia’s annual meeting Nov. 8-9 in Richmond, Va.
Averett University’s ties to Virginia Baptists date to 1859, when the school was founded.
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If approved by the BGAV, the state association and the 900-student university will “affirm their mutual and supportive relationship” through “shared values, mission and vision.” In addition the BGAV will include Averett in its annual budget — at least initially at the modest amount of $2,000 — and offer three nominees to serve on the university’s 27-member board of trustees, effectively restoring the relationship that existed prior to 2005.
Averett, which was affiliated with the BGAV from the school’s founding in 1859, drew the ire of some Virginia Baptists in 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 was quoted as saying the God revealed in a literal reading of the Bible is “immoral” and “unbelievable.”
In response the BGAV escrowed funds — then totalling about $350,000 — allocated to the school and, in consultation with Averett, used the money to create a Christian leadership network to train ministers and laypeople in the mountainous region west of Roanoke, Va. The network was to operate directly under Averett’s president’s office and would not draw teachers from Averett’s faculty. The agreement appeared to open the way for the BGAV to maintain ties with the school.
However, Virginia Baptist leaders’ confidence in the agreement was shaken in 2005 when they learned the school’s Gay/Straight Alliance hosted a gay pride week on campus.
Though then President Richard 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 was the dean of students.
Following a meeting between BGAV leaders and Averett administrators and trustees, the two entities agreed to end the relationship and “to walk separate paths with blessings on one another, recognizing that these paths might join again at a future time.”
Last year, Averett President Tiffany Franks — who succeeded Pfau in 2008 — and Frank Maddux, the school’s trustee chair, initiated a request to re-establish ties. In response, the Mission Board authorized a committee to explore options.
In her letter, Franks said “it was both a desire of the Averett trustees, as well as a personal desire, to see the BGAV and Averett University as partners once again,” study committee chair Jeff Bloomer said Oct. 4 in presenting the panel’s recommendation to restore ties. Bloomer, a retired public school administrator from Culpeper, Va., said the committee met four times this year. After its final meeting on July 20, a draft covenant detailing terms of the agreement was offered to Averett administrators, who endorsed it.
The BGAV budget committee, which unveiled its proposed 2012 budget Oct. 4 at the Mission Board meeting, included an allocation for Averett, pending approval of the covenant by the BGAV in November.
Though the amount is small, Averett’s inclusion in the budget is essential for its students to receive scholarships from the Keesee Educational Fund, a Martinsville, Va., based foundation which distributes about $3 million annually in grants to about 700 students attending selected Baptist-affiliated universities and seminaries. Keesee’s board of trustees requires eligible institutions to be funded in part by a Baptist denomination.
During the Mission Board’s consideration of the proposal, BGAV executive director John Upton maintained the state association has not altered its stance on homosexuality, which is based on a 1993 BGAV resolution affirming “the biblical teaching that homosexual behavior is sinful and unacceptable to Christians.” That statement is now included in the BGAV’s “core values.”
“I want to emphasize that our position has not changed,” said Upton.
Franks told the Mission Board changes had been made in Averett’s religion department and that the school is seeking a New Testament professor who will become the department’s head. She also reported that new policies regarding student organizations had been adopted.
“I want to tell you how blessed I feel …,” she said. “The relationship of Averett to Virginia Baptists is in our DNA. Our separation was truly far more about our not nurturing our relationship as much as we needed to.”
The BGAV currently affiliates with two senior colleges — Bluefield College in Bluefield, Va., and Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, Va.—and three college preparatory academies — Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, Va.; Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va.; and Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va.
The state association ended its relationship with the University of Richmond in 1999 when the school added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy regarding student, faculty and staff recruitment and promotion.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.