ATHENS, Ga. — The historic First Baptist Church, Athens, Ga., has voted to sever ties with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
Church members voted 285-28 to discontinue affiliation with the nation’s largest Protestant denomination at a church conference April 9, according to an announcement released to the media.
The 800-member, 170-year-old congregation had belonged to the SBC since the convention’s founding in August, Ga., in 1845.
The break follows a 2-year study, which concluded that the church and the denomination had been moving apart since conservatives took control of the SBC in the late 1970s.
Differences cited by church members included pastoral authority, academic freedom at seminaries and the role of women. The church “strongly favors” the priesthood of all believers, free academic inquiry and women’s ordination, the statement said.
A church spokesman said the church is one of the first in Georgia to sever ties with the SBC, but he didn’t know if others would follow its example. “We can only speak for our behavior,” Al Crace, chairman of deacons, told an Athens newspaper. A decision by another church would be “their decision,” he added.
The congregation plans to remain in fellowship with Sarepta Baptist Association, the Georgia Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
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