Ecumenical News International News Highlights 20 January 2004

European Baptists 'deeply hurt' about possible split in world alliance

Sofia (ENI). European Baptists have strongly criticised moves in the Southern Baptist Convention, the biggest Protestant grouping in the United States, to quit the Baptist World Alliance on the grounds that the alliance is too liberal. "Do we realise how much our witness to the world will be harmed when we try to explain that we are different groups of Baptists who cannot work together?" the Sofia-based European Baptist Federation said in a statement. The European federation said Baptists in Europe and the Middle East were "deeply hurt" by the proposal and it expressed full support for the world alliance.

[289 words, ENI-04-0030]