Baptist higher education faces a monumental crisis, due in large part to abuses of control and financial dependence, longtime university president Kirby Godsey told participants at the Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society's annual meeting June 22 in Atlanta. Godsey will retire…
Don’t be afraid of evangelicals, Obama tells other progressives
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Speaking to a group of Christians rallying in Washington, a possible contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination said it's time for progressives and liberals to talk about faith, but only if they can speak authentically. “Nothing's…
Methodist numbers drop below 8 million
(RNS) — A United Methodist Church report says church membership dipped to a new low last year, dropping to under 8 million in the United States for the first time in nearly 80 years. The church's General Council on Finance…
Leland Center receives accreditation; faculty lauded for ‘notable scholarship’
ARLINGTON, Va. (ABP) — The John Leland Center for Theological Studies received full accreditation status from the Association of Theological Schools June 15. It now offers diploma, master of divinity, and master of theological studies classes to roughly 150 students…
BWA presses Vietnam on religious freedom
(ABP) — A Baptist World Alliance-led delegation recently returned from Vietnam, where they pressed government officials to ensure greater religious freedom in the rapidly Westernizing nation. Vietnamese-American Baptists and top officials from the Baptist World Alliance, the Baptist General Convention…
Study counts 1,600 ordained, Baptist women in the South
ATLANTA (ABP) — Roughly 1,600 Baptist women in the southern United States have been ordained to the ministry, according to a new report released by Baptist Women in Ministry. The study reviewed women in churches affiliated with the Alliance of…
Alito tips balance upholding Kansas’ death-penalty law
WASHINGTON (ABP) — New Justice Samuel Alito cast the deciding fifth vote in a June 26 Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of Kansas' death-penalty law. The high court divided closely — and acrimoniously — in the case. On a…
Former Illinois Baptist exec Maurice Swinford dies
HERRIN, Ill. (ABP) – Maurice Swinford, who led the Illinois Baptist State Association for five years until his retirement in 1993, died Saturday. He was 78. An Illinois native born in Charleston, Swinford began working for the statewide association as…
South African preacher, activist tells CBF to hear world’s ‘groans’
ATLANTA (ABP) — Maybe it takes a Methodist from South Africa to tell a bunch of Baptists in the American South that they need to wake up to reality and “step outside your own little bubble” in order to hear…
Fellowship breaks tradition with commissioning ceremony
ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship broke tradition June 23 during its annual general assembly in Atlanta by commissioning only short-term and self-funded mission workers, rather than any fully funded career missionaries. The group commissioned 19 new affiliated workers…
Carolyn Anderson, head of CBF Florida, announces retirement for next January
ATLANTA (ABP) — Carolyn Anderson, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida since 2003, has announced her plans to retire Jan. 1. Anderson's announcement came at the June 22 CBF of Florida meeting during the Fellowship's annual general assembly…
Correction
There is an error in the 5th paragraph of the June 24 ABP story, “Episcopalians send mixed messages, Presbyterians moderate at meetings.” Please delete the second sentence of that paragraph and replace it with the following: “Only a handful of…