 March 31, 1999
Baptist Briefs
___ Virginia CBF wants refund. Virginia's Cooperative Baptist Fellowship chapter has made an unprecedented re-quest that national CBF rebate a portion of funds it receives from Virginia churches to bolster the organization's work in the state. Most state and regional Fellowship groups receive money from local churches. They keep part of it and forward the rest to na-tional CBF offices in Atlanta. In Virginia, however, most churches that support the moderate Baptist organization do so through a giving-plan option administered by the Baptist General Association of Vir-ginia. Virginia CBF leaders said they need more money to hire staff to promote the Fellowship's missions and ministries.
___ University policy causes rift. The University of Richmond has added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy, a move some say puts it at odds with the Baptist General Association of Virginia, which founded the school 169 years ago. The rewritten policy, approved by trustees during a regular meeting March 5, prohi-bits discrimination of gays and lesbians in recruiting and promotion of students, faculty and staff. But the policy may be incompat-ible with a position on homosexuality taken by the BGAV last year, when messengers to the annual meeting "commended" to churches a statement "that homosexual behavior is sinful and unacceptable to Christians."
___ Liberian seminary reopens. After a seven-year shutdown during a brutal civil war, the campus of the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary reopened in March, launching a new era of training leaders to evangelize and start churches in the West African country. Although the campus had been closed since the civil war began in 1990, the seminary offered classes at another location in down-town Monrovia between 1993 and 1996. During the seven years the campus was closed, Ghanaian peacekeeping soldiers lived on the campus and protected it from looters. Liberia and China were the first two mission fields opened by Southern Baptists, both in 1846, a year after the convention organized its foreign mission board.
___ Glorieta gets new name. Glorieta and Ridgecrest conference centers are changing their names in what leaders say will better reflect the vision and ministry of their parent agency, LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Effective April 1, the new name for the facilities will be LifeWay Conference Center at Glorieta and LifeWay Conference Center at Ridgecrest.
___ No anthrax found. According to FBI lab results, anthrax was not found in a letter claiming to carry the deadly bacteria open-ed at the Southern Baptist Convention Build-ing in Nashville, Tenn., March 5. Officials with Nashville's Metro Health Department reported the results March 19 to SBC Exec-utive Committee officials. Four Executive Committee staff members, including Jack Wilkerson, vice president for business and finance, and a fire department captain underwent a decontamination wash and were given antibiotics as a precaution.
___ LifeWay obtains Wounded Heroes. Wounded Heroes, a ministry to hurting and depressed ministers begun by Texas evangelist Freddie Gage in 1997, will merge May 1 with LeaderCare, Life-Way Christian Resources' ministry to mini-sters and their families. Gage, 66, will hand off day-to-day administration duties to LeaderCare but will continue to speak at Wounded Heroes retreats.
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