Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting voted down a proposal asking the Woman's Missionary Union to become an official entity of the SBC.
The proposal's defeat allows WMU to retain its status as an auxiliary of the SBC. The motion that would have also called for the women's union to reaffirm its “exclusive” commitment to the SBC was defeated by a show of ballots. The vote went against a decision by the SBC Executive Committee.
Wanda Lee, WMU executive director, spoke against the motion. She said WMU's “singular purpose” is missions.
“We exist for the sole purpose of equipping our churches in missions education and missions involvement,” Lee said.
Kaye Miller, president of the national WMU, told messengers that at the request of the Executive Committee, WMU polled the members of its executive board, and members decided to request that they remain an auxiliary group.
The Executive Committee passed the proposal with only a few votes in opposition. Earlier, an Executive Committee workgroup passed the measure with one abstention. It passed a subcommittee with one vote in opposition.
Discussion in the workgroup and subcommittee showed the SBC leaders were concerned about the WMU's continued relationship with the Baptist World Alliance. The SBC voted to withdraw from the BWA two years ago. SBC leaders also expressed concern that the WMU had in the 1990s removed a mention of the SBC in its governing documents.
SBC officials said the move gives WMU members a chance to tell Southern Baptists who they are. WMU officials, on the other hand, indicated their support for the SBC and suggested that the SBC reaffirm WMU's auxiliary status.
The Executive Committee passed the motion after a substitute motion that would have simply affirmed WMU's auxiliary status failed with only two or three Executive Committee members voting in favor.
During discussion over the matter, Julie Walters, a WMU spokesperson, read a letter that Lee wrote to Randall James, the chair of the Executive Committee workgroup that dealt with the issue.
Lee told James that WMU values its Southern Baptist partners. The group has already put in place processes to address some of the concerns some Southern Baptists have expressed concerning the group.