First Baptist in Richmond withdraws from Southern Baptist Convention

RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond's First Baptist Church will no longer be a part of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest protestant denomination in the country.

Church leaders said the decision came after a business meeting last week in response to the convention's proposed amendment requiring pastors and elders of its churches to be men.

"We believe every Baptist church has the right to determine its own mission and ministry and to ordain whomever it perceives to be gifted for ministry whether male or female," First Baptist Pastor Jim Somerville said in response to the decision.

First Baptist has two female pastors.

“Lynn Turner and Allison Collier have those titles, but we have a number of other female ministers on our staff," Somerville said. "We’re not giving them up either.”

The decision marks the end of a 179-year-long relationship between the church and the SBC.

Church leaders called the amendment "the latest illustration of a rift that has been growing" between the church and the convention since the 1980s.

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