Church Leaves SBC over Homosexuality

                                                                                                                           Vol. VI, No. 2, March 1993

Dolores Street Baptist Church, a small congregation in San Francisco, severed ties with the SBC effective 10 January, according to a news release from its pastor, Marilyn Chilcote. In 1981 Dolores Street adopted a statement welcoming all persons "to minister" through the congregation, and the California Southern Baptist Convention and the San Francisco/Peninsula Southern Baptist Association severed ties with the congregation. However, the church continued to send "a small amount" to the SBC Cooperative Program. The church's news release cited the SBC action last year to disfellowship two NC churches and to amend the SBC constitution to bar churches which affirm the practice of homosexuality. To date, news reports have appeared on three churches that have left the SBC – one each in Houston, Washington, and now Dolores Street – and one church, in Indiana, that joined the SBC over the convention's anti-homosexuality stance. [BP]