ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
Virginia's oldest and largest association of Southern Baptists made only passing mention Tuesday of the defection by some of its more conservative brethren to a new, rival Southern Baptist state convention earlier this year.
But, messengers - voting members - of the 173rd annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia quickly learned the departure of that contingent didn't end debate over policies inside their group.
About 1,700 messengers meeting in the Richmond Centre spent most of the afternoon debating a budget for the coming year - specifically, provisions for restructuring the organization's professional staff and severing a 45-year relationship with a national religious-liberties group.
The budget committee recommended cutting the $2,100 allocation to the Washington-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State after hearing complaints about that agency's actions.
Budget committee members said no representative of Americans United showed up at the first meeting held to hear complaints about it. Later, the agency "didn't represent itself very well" at a second meeting to discuss the funding, said budget committee member Bill Ross, pastor of Vinton Baptist Church.
Some messengers complained that in recent years Americans United has gone too far to in its attempts to keep church and state separate. Members particularly felt the group was ignoring defense of the right to free exercise of religion in its zeal to keep religious expression - such as creches or menorahs - off public property.
Messengers overwhelmingly approved the budget cutting Americans United support and increasing funding to Virginia-based mission programs.
A spokesman for Americans United said his agency was "disappointed in the action" to cut off funding, but would offer no other comment.
If the Baptist General Association's 1,500 member churches continue current patterns, most will participate in giving plans that devote 68 percent of their money to Virginia mission causes; 2 percent to "Partnership Missions" in such diverse places as Pennsylvania and Bosnia; and 30 percent to broader mission work including programs paid for by the Southern Baptist Convention and some non-Southern Baptist agencies, such as the Baptist Theological Seminary.
The overall budget for next year will be $15.5 million, up just $100,000 from this year.
Treasurer Nathanial Kellum told the messengers that churches so far have fallen slightly short of this year's budget, though they are on a par with giving from the year before.
In an interview later, Kellum said it was too soon to tell what impact the move of some churches to the newly formed Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia will have on his group's budget.
The conservatives' group is still formulating its constitution and bylaws, including membership criteria, so it is hard to tell how many churches are likely to affiliate with it.
So far, only a handful have publicly announced their affiliation, though more than 100 have sent financial contributions in the past year. It has a budget for the coming year of $774,000.
Kellum expects many churches that do participate in the new organization to maintain ties with the Baptist General Association, at least for the time being.
Messengers Tuesday also approved an extensive reorganization of their association's professional staff into six teams that will address areas such as leadership development, assistance in mission development and strategies, church ministry programs, student ministries, and support services for churches.
The association continues its meeting today with the election of officers, resolutions and what is expected to be the approval of another name change - this time for its executive board.
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