Associated Baptist Press is reporting that moderate and progressive Baptist churches in North America have donated $500,000 to the Baptist World Alliance to offset the $450,000 that the Southern Baptist Convention took from them when they pulled out last year. The SBC pulled out when BWA admitted the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship into its membership.
BWA is currently holding its 100th anniversary meeting. This year it admitted two moderate state conventions -- the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist General Convention of Virginia -- into its membership. It also approved a budget increase of more than 18%.
Clearly, the departure of the SBC from BWA has served to strengthen, rather than weaken the BWA. Moderate Baptists suspect that in the future Texas, Virginia, CBF and the American Baptist Churches will increasingly be working with the BWA to strategically coordinate efforts and strengthen partnerships in missions, evangelism and education throughout the Americas.
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