Churches have been contacted by the NSW/ACT Baptist Association and been told they will have to leave the denominational fellowship because of their support of same-sex marriage.
Belinda Groves, a pastor and team leader at Canberra Baptist, told The Other Cheek, “Our church (and Seaforth and Hamilton) have already been contacted directly and told that (once a process for disaffiliating churches and disaccrediting pastors has been developed) we will be disaffiliated.”
The three churches are well-known progressive churches within the Baptist Association. Groves expects the process to force their church out to be devised by February.
The decision of the association to move towards requiring churches to affirm a “position statement” against same-sex marriage was reported by The Other Cheek here. The Association Assembly decided to continue working on how to enforce signing the position statement at a meeting in May.
Leaving the Baptist Association will mean the churches lose insurance coverage, infrastructure to deal with abuse and assistance with property matters.
That’s the reason behind the convening of a meeting this month of a group called Open Baptists. For the NSW/ACT churches that have been given notice the Open Baptist body could act as a replacement for the Baptist Association, but the group is getting support beyond the churches told they will have to leave.
“In New South Wales, it will effectively mean a split,” Nathan Nettleton, pastor of South Yarra baptist church and a member of the Open Baptist’s interim board, told The Other Cheek. “The split is not being caused by us forming. We’re forming because a group has been kicked out, and they’re an identifiable group.”
Nettleton says that about 15 to 20 NSW churches have been involved in conversations as the Open Baptists group is formed. “Part of what’s happened in New South Wales, I think, is that the NSW/ACT Association thought that they were dealing with two or three churches. What they’ve discovered then is that there’s quite a few more churches and pastors who had not been outspoken in support of same-sex marriage or anything, but who actually when pushed on this and, [when asked] ‘Will you sign this?’ Said ‘No”.
“And then there’s another bunch of churches who said, we hold a completely traditional view on marriage, but we think this process is so appalling that we’re not going to sign either.”
Baptists hold to the principle of local church autonomy, and strong feelings on this issue are the reason that despite a strong conservative majority among NSW Baptists, the discussion over making opposition to same-sex marriage mandatory has taken years.
This was reflected in the voting at a special Assembly meeting in November 2022, where the new anti-same-sex marriage position statement received overwhelming support, but the disaffiliation proposal got a lower vote – but still a majority.
Rather than proceeding with the disaffiliation rules straight away, this year’s Assembly meeting set up a consultative committee.
The Assembly motion read, “That Assembly Council:
(a) communicate to the churches at least 4 months prior to the 2024 Annual Assembly a relational process for engaging with and, where necessary facilitating the withdrawal of already affiliated Churches and removal of already Accredited (and/or Recognised) Pastors who do not support the Association’s position on Marriage; and,
(b) bring to a vote of that assembly any amendments to the constitution and the affirmation of ministry guidelines required for implementing this process. Any changes to other policy documents integral to this process should also be reported at this Assembly
This process will clarify any potential ongoing relationship between such a church or pastor and the Association where they are unable to continue to be affiliated or accredited with the Association.“
In response, the assembly Council appointed a consultative committee that was given the tasks of:
- Draft clarifying principles as to what ‘support’ in the context of the Association’s position on marriage means and looks like in practice.
- Construct a draft relational process for engaging with, and where necessary, facilitating the withdrawal of, already affiliated churches who do not support the Association’s position on marriage. Also, explore what any ongoing relationship may look like with these churches.
- Explore what ongoing supports might/should be provided for such churches and how these might be provided.
- Construct a draft relational process for engaging with, and where necessary facilitating the removal of accreditation/recognition of, pastors who do not support the Association’s position on marriage. This includes exploring whether any alternative form of ongoing credentialing is desirable or possible.
- Discern any potential unintended consequences [that] may arise from disaffiliation or removal of accreditation/recognition. List possible options and make preferred recommendations for alleviating or minimising such consequences.
The assembly update linked above backs up reports from the dissident churches about being told they will have to leave – arguably, that is what the consultative committee was asked to do in constructing a process for them to go.
The progressive churches believe they will be asked to leave, and that is part of the motivation for setting up the Open Baptist group.
“Because of the trigger issue in New South Wales, we will be portrayed by many as being the same-sex marriage Baptists, but it’s not actually true,” Nettleton explained.
“Fair to say that most of the churches that are supportive of same-sex marriage are likely to affiliate with the Open Baptists, but there are a bunch of others as well. And so what we would see as being the thing that links us is a commitment to being distinctively Baptist in a way that we think is being lost. And I can probably illustrate that by why the Victorians are involved.
“The trigger in Victoria was some changes to the Constitution of the Baptist Union in Victoria, which [involved] two rounds of changes over the last decade or so. In both rounds, the effect was shifting further away from the autonomy of the local church and even the governance of the assembly to the Baptist Union being governed much more strongly by a union council.”
The progressive churches in the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV) don’t think they are in danger of being removed. Those Victorians who join the Open Baptists intend also to continue as active members of the BUV. But for them, it is a “matter of holding to Baptist distinctives,” as Nettleton puts it. He assesses the Canberra meeting as having a narrow majority of churches that support same-sex marriage, reflecting the diverse number of reasons people have for being interested in the Open Baptists.
The NSW/ACT Baptist Association reports a membership of 340 churches and 43,000 people “in the Baptist family.” It has an active church planting movement Gen1K seeking 1,000 healthy churches in a generation.
The marriage position statement reads, “Marriage is a covenant relationship ordained by God as a lifelong faithful union of one man and one woman. Sexual intimacy outside such a marriage relationship is incompatible with God’s intention for us as his people.”
The Other Cheek contacted the NSW/ACT Baptist Association for comment on this story.