GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Georgetown College recently began promoting relations with a newly formed partnership between four leading black Baptist conventions.
Meeting at the Kentucky Baptist college in Georgetown Aug. 8, officials from the conventions agreed upon an arrangement that will include archiving important black resources and increasing the number of minority students at the predominately white school, located near Lexington.
Leaders present at the meeting and at a ceremony promoting unity and cooperation were from the National Baptist Convention U.S.A.; the Progressive National Baptist Convention; the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America; and the National Baptist Convention of America.
Georgetown President William Crouch called the partnership an opportunity to relate to a larger segment of the Baptist family.
Georgetown officials are also soliciting funds to purchase a former church building adjacent to the campus to house sermons and other historical materials related to black Baptist ministers. Already the college houses the Kentucky Underground Railroad Research Institute on campus in a building that once served as slave quarters.
In other news, Georgetown’s board of trustees requested that dialogue begin between the college and the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC) to review the working relationship between the two. A 14-member joint workgroup is in the process of being formed. The request was approved by the KBC Mission Board’s administrative committee in executive session Aug. 18. The request comes after KBC messengers voted last fall by more than 60 percent against a proposed constitutional amendment to allow KBC-related colleges to recruit non-Baptist trustees.
Crouch said the need for dialogue about the school’s relationship to the state convention dates back to 2000, when trustees approved plans to pursue Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) standards. PBK, the nation’s oldest undergraduate honors society, is designed to foster academic excellence on selected college campuses.
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