July 11, 2003

BAPTIST WORLD ALLIANCE

Baptist World Alliance Accepts Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

(by Wendy Ryan)

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (BWA) -- The General Council, the governing body of the Baptist World Alliance voted today Friday, July 11, 2003, to accept five new member bodies into its global fellowship, one of which is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF)

The CBF received a majority vote of 75 of the 105 voting council members who, after a long, but calm debate, cast their votes in a separate, secret ballot to include the group and end a three -year long process. There was one abstention and one spoiled ballot.

"We commit this decision to you," prayed BWA President Billy Kim to end the Council session.

Following the session, BWA President Kim and General Secretary Lotz emphasized "This decision to accept CBF was based upon the facts that CBF met the requirements for membership. It was not a decision against the SBC, but a democratic vote of the council to affirm our Baptist family. Other member bodies received were also the results of conflict and division, such as that of the Fraternidad in Cuba and the Community of Baptist Churches of Eastern Congo.

"We love our Southern Baptist brothers and sisters and want them to remain active and full participants in all our meetings as we affirm together our unity in Christ," they said.

In presenting the case for the CBF, a group first formed from disaffected churches and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, (SBC) Australian Baptist missionary leader Ian Hawley, chair of the international Membership Committee said this decision was not made lightly or easily. "We have agonized and prayed over the last three years," he said. "This is the only fair and right decision that could be made."

Hawley retraced the steps that led to the Membership Committee's recommendation to the General Council to accept the CBF as a member body.

Hawley said it was in July 2001 at the General council meeting of the BWA in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada that the CBF first applied for membership. After consideration, the Membership Committee deferred the request on the grounds of questions about the separate identity of the CBF from the SBC and concerns about the relationship of those two bodies.

The Membership Committee pointed to the BWA Bylaws which state, "each member body shall have an identity of its own and shall not exist as an integral part of some union or convention"

During 2002, the CBF applied again, this time with supporting documents to show they are a separate organization from the SBC "and have a distinctly diverse understanding to the SBC of what it means to be an organized body of Baptist churches and individuals in covenant relationship."

Troubled by the lack of reconciliation between the SBC and the CBF, the Membership Committee asked a BWA team led by the BWA President and the BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz, to meet with both leaders of the SBC and CBF. These meetings with leaders of the SBC and CBF took place last September 16-19.

In March 2003, at the Executive Committee meetings of the BWA, the Membership Committee met at a specially called meeting of the BWA President, and heard a report of those visits. They examined the supporting documents from the CBF and also focused on the questions of process at the PEI meeting that had caused a strong negative reaction from the SBC that led to a reduction of SBC funds of $125,000 to the BWA. Again they heard from leaders of the SBC and CBF.

The Membership Committee affirmed the process of reporting to the General Council that they did in Canada, and also expressed "regret and sorrow for the hurt caused to the SBC.'

"We certainly did not want to hurt or embarrass the SBC." Hawley said, we in fact wanted to avoid unseemly discussion at the Council meeting in PEI.

Here in Rio de Janeiro, the Membership Committee again invited leaders of the SBC and CBF to address them.

Hawley said the Membership Committee had reached their conclusion to accept the CBF because it had met the two criteria for membership. A 20 point document issued by their leadership last October stated publicly their separate identity from the SBC.

Hawley emphasized among other facts that:

-there are 150 CBF churches that with no formal ties to the SBC -that for the last seven years the SBC had received no funding from CBF churches -the CBF has a 20 million foundation that serves as a resource for their organization -the CBF has a Church Benefits Board that provides health care and pension benefits to the more than 300 people related to its ministries.

In the discussion that preceded the vote, Daniel Vestal, General Secretary of CBF was asked if CBF was indeed a separate entity, and had announced this publicly and since it was not a union or denomination, met the criteria for membership in the BWA according to the BWA Constitution and Bylaws.

Vestal replied he believed that the October 20 document had shown CBF to be its own organization from the SBC but acknowledged there are churches that are aligned with both SBC and CBF, a practice common to Baptist life in the USA and a local church decision.

Vestal also said the CBF did not want to use the word denomination. "My denomination is Baptist," he said.

Hawley was asked if the Membership Committee had examined the doctrinal stance of the CBF. "Yes we have received and studied this, "he said. "And are you satisfied that their theological positions are consistent with the BWA? he was asked? "Our recommendation implies that we are satisfied," Hawley said.

The four other members received in the BWA on the first of the two votes are: the Community of Baptist Churches of Eastern Congo formed in 1982 with 330 churches and 73346 members and related to Conservative Baptists; the Association of Baptist Churches in the Central African Republic, formed in the 1920's with 60,000 members with past relationships to Baptist Mid Missions , now Norwegian Baptists; the Baptist Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, formed July 2000 with 12 churches and 250 members and related to the European Baptist Federation and the Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba formed in 1959 with 31 churches and 3,000 members.

The acceptance of the Fraternity from Cuba was the result of reconciliation meetings between them and the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba held by the BWA General Secretary and leaders of the Union of Baptists in Latin America held last October.

Speaking of the membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hawley said, "this group represents a young and vibrant church God has brought to birth following the war."

These additions bring the total BWA membership to 211 member bodies that represent more than 46 million baptized believers around the world.