Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170456
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE/ RELIGION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Dellana West O'Brien, executive director of the 1.2 million-member Women's Missionary Union auxiliary to the convention, said, "I believe we will be judged [by God] - moderate, conservative or whatever" for being diverted from mission work by denominational politics.
O'Brien was in Salem Tuesday night as guest speaker for the annual meeting of the Women's Missionary Union of the Roanoke Valley Baptist Association.
The Southern Baptist Convention has endured a dozen years of fractious infighting as its ultraconservative or fundamentalist faction has taken control of denominational offices and institutions.
The women's group is independent of control by the convention but closely affiliated with it through its exclusive dedication to supporting Southern Baptist missionary efforts.
This year, for the first time in 53 years, the denomination expects donations to the Christmas offering to be below the previous year's. The $79 million now anticipated from that offering is $7 million below what had been budgeted.
Not only has that had a financial impact on missionaries in the field, O'Brien said, but it also "affects their psyche" far from home where the intensity of the struggles seems magnified by the distance.
The Women's Missionary Union "has attempted to stay above the convention controversy and focus on missions, which is our reason for existence," O'Brien said.
Continued fighting, however, "has had some impact on our work," she said. In fact, the women's group reported a slight loss of members nationwide during the annual meeting of the 15 million-member Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans last June.
An element of the controversy focuses on whether women should be ordained to the ministry and allowed to lead churches. Ultraconservatives generally oppose women's ordination, and the denomination's Home Mission Board has policies that limit or prohibit mission funding to churches led by women.
That controversy, too, has had an impact on the work of the women's auxiliary.
"Part of our charge and responsibility is to teach girls . . . that God calls all people to missions.
"Some say, `Why teach girls that God calls them when their areas of service are limited?' " O'Brien said. "It is an issue."
While carefully avoiding taking any side in the controversy during her address, O'Brien did remind her audience that Southern Baptist women face "unparalleled opportunities and unprecedented problems" as they seek to fulfill their Christian mission to lead people to faith in Christ.
O'Brien, 57, has been a Southern Baptist missionary to Indonesia and has led the national Women's Missionary Union, based in Birmingham, Ala., since September 1989.
She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Virginia Tech and was a school administrator for eight years in Richmond, where her husband was on the staff of the Foreign Mission Board.
The 169 members of the Roanoke Valley group in attendance at Bethel Baptist Church re-elected Alice Richardson as their director Tuesday night.
They heard several reports, including plans for several observances of this year's 150th anniversary of the Roanoke Valley Association.
by CNB