SBC Rules Challenge Japanese Baptist Women: Women Pastors And Ministers Express Their Concerns To The Southern Baptist Convention President. -- By: Yori Ito
Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 16:4 (Fall 2002)
Article: SBC Rules Challenge Japanese Baptist Women: Women Pastors And Ministers Express Their Concerns To The Southern Baptist Convention President.
Author: Yori Ito
PP 16:4 (Fall 2002) p. 20
SBC Rules Challenge Japanese Baptist Women: Women Pastors And Ministers Express Their Concerns To The Southern Baptist Convention President.
Following is the response of Japanese Baptist women to recent actions of the Southern Baptist Convention concerning the role of women in that denomination. It was made available to Priscilla Papers by Joe E. Trull, who, as a former trustee of the sbc mission board, understands their dilemma well. He says he has seen evidences of the problem first-hand in a visit to the Baptist seminary in Buenos Aires.
The women in ministry of the Japanese Baptist Convention (JBC) gave this letter to sbc President James Merritt on the occasion of his recent visit to the JBC offices in Japan. In it they express their appreciation for Baptist international missions and the history of its influence in Asia. But they also speak candidly on their views about what the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message says about women in ministry and marriage.
Dear President James Merritt and all the brothers and sisters in the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention:
Blessed be the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
May the blessings of our Lord be with you abundantly, brothers and sisters in the Southern Baptist Convention, who as “Spiritual Mother” gave birth to us Japanese Baptists.
We are the Fellowship of JBC Women Pastors and Ministers, and are extending to you our warm welcome to Japan. Taking this opportunity, we would like to express our gratitude along with our views concerning the issue of Women in Ministry.
First of all, let us express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to you for all the missionary works extended to Japan for more than 110 years. We thank the Lord and praise His name because of those SBC missionaries, as they have given their lives to serve the Lord in our country, sharing the gospel with Japanese people, planting numerous churches, as well as training pastors and ministers through theological education. Especially, it is our greatest pleasure and privilege to mention that almost all of our group members are the women pastors and ministers in the Japan Baptist Convention, whose lives have been touched and changed by Christ through the works of those faithful SBC missionaries, women missionaries in particular. For us Japanese Baptists, these women missionaries have been the wonderful role models of serving the Lord, and the living examples of women responding to the calls of God. It is through their models and examples that many of us...
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