Short Spots

                                                                                                                                                                   Vol. IX, No. 10, Nov/Dec 1996

October CP Up: SBC cooperative Program gifts for October 1996 were 12.6% above those for last year: $12,315,117 compared to $10,937,383. The contributions were 1.88% or $227,325 above budget. [BP]

Seminaries’ Enrollment Up: Each of the SBC’s six seminaries report fall semester enrollment increases above last year:

                               Increased #           %               Total

Seminary             of Students     Increase        Students

Midwestern                  160                 32%                654         record enrollment

Southeastern               255                 23%              1353         record enrollment, 3rd year of double digit increase.

Golden Gate                  78                   6.8%           1220

Southwestern                51                   1.6%            3077         largest seminary in world

Southern                        22                   1.0%            1643         first SBC seminary, 1849

New Orleans                 12                    0.7%           1808         w/o president for over a year; new president just

                                                                                                      arrived. [BP]

Coming Change at Annuity Board: Paul Powell, AB president since 1 march 1990, will turn 65 in December 1998 and has told the trustees he expects to retire when he is 65. By tradition AB officers retire at the annual board meeting in February following their 65th birthday. Richard C. Scott, trustee chairman, named an eight-member search committee to seek a replacement. The committee will also seek a new chief operating officer as the incumbent, Gordon Hobgood, turns 65 in August 1997. [BP]

Former HMB Interfaith Director Joins Masons: SBC watchers will be interested that Gary Leazer, the former HMB official who conducted a controversial 1992-93 study of Freemasonry, has announced he has become a Mason. Leazer’s study became controversial when he wrote a letter to a Mason very sympathetic to Masonry. Leazer had also given a speech sympathetic to Mason’s and critical of the HMB to a regional Masonic convention in Atlanta. The HMB Interfaith Witness Department has recently released an examination of a primary Masonic text, A Bridge to Light, concluding that “many of the religious teachings presented in A Bridge to Light are incompatible with biblical Christianity.” The pamphlet may be ordered from HMB customer Services at 1-800-634-2462. [BP]

CBF Contributing Churches: At the CBF Coordinating Council meeting 26-28 September members heard that 1,497 churches sent gifts to CBF in the 1995-96 fiscal year. Officials admitted that the majority of these are individual church members designating gifts to CBF through CBF rather than the church including CBF in its budget. [BP]