Baptists Bar Church With Female Pastor
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SAN FRANCISCO — A female pastor whose church has been barred from the state convention of California Southern Baptists says the action had more to do with power than “being Biblical.”
“Next year, it will be some other church, and for some other reason,” said the Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell.
Arguing that leadership by women is “unscriptural,” delegates voted 213 to 204 this week in Santa Rosa to prohibit representatives from 19th Avenue Baptist Church from being seated at the California Southern Baptist Convention.
Pennington-Russell, who served on the staff of the 180-member San Francisco church for the past decade, said the state association cannot remove her from the pulpit.
She felt the decision is part of a fundamentalist takeover of the 15-million-member denomination.
Robert Collier, pastor of First Baptist Church of Prunedale and chief parliamentarian of the state convention, said the San Francisco delegates should have been seated.
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