RICHMOND, Va. — A leadership committee has asked a Richmond congregation to withdraw its Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV) membership in the wake of the church’s Sept. 16 ordination of an openly gay man to the ministry.
If Ginter Park Baptist Church declines to withdraw by Dec. 31, the BGAV will no longer accept its financial contributions, the Virginia Baptist Mission Board’s executive committee said in a letter to the church. Since contributions to BGAV ministries are necessary for membership, that action would essentially end the church’s 96-year affiliation with the state association.
The executive committee reported its request Oct. 10 at the end of the Mission Board’s fall meeting at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center near Lynchburg, Va.
Mission Board Executive Director John Upton said “four or five” conversations had been held both before and after the ordination between BGAV and Ginter Park Baptist leaders.
This would be the first time the 1,300-church association founded in 1823 has dismissed a church over homosexuality.
Ginter Park was organized in 1916 on Richmond’s Northside and also is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists. Another affiliation — the Richmond Baptist Association (RBA) — may be challenged at the RBA’s fall meeting Oct. 21.
Other Baptist state conventions, including North Carolina and Texas, have withdrawn fellowship from congregations welcoming and affirming of gays.
The Southern Baptist Convention bans membership by churches that “act to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior” in its constitution.
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