BALTIMORE (RNS) — As the annual session of the National Baptist Convention, USA, the historically Black denomination, opened on Tuesday (Sept. 3), the biggest question that loomed is how the meeting will end:
Will it have a new president or not?
In the months leading up to the gathering at the Baltimore Convention Center, members of the National Baptist Convention have witnessed a contentious battle over who will be next to lead the group that traces its roots to 1880.
The Rev. Jerry Young, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, has been president for two five-year terms and cannot run for a consecutive third term under the denomination’s bylaws.
Of the five candidates vying to replace Young, only one — the Rev. Boise Kimber, senior pastor of First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven, Connecticut — was found to have received the necessary 100 endorsements from member churches and other NBCUSA entities to qualify to run for president.
Pastor Thomas Morris Sr., chairman of the NBCUSA’s Election Supervisory Commission, said that while other candidates may have gotten a sufficient number of endorsements, some of the endorsements may have come from entities that had not met their financial obligations to the denomination in recent years and are not considered in good standing.
Morris said some churches have been unable to afford their annual registration with the denomination due to lack of funds, consolidation or closure.
“Many of them did not meet that 100-vote threshold,” said Morris, who also is a member of the NBCUSA board of directors. “Dr. Boise Kimber did.”
A new president is chosen by a simple-majority vote and is not elected by acclamation even if there is a sole candidate, said Morris, a Mississippi pastor.
“If no, then we go back to square one,” said Morris of the election set for Thursday. “But, if yes, then Dr. Kimber becomes the next president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Incorporated.”
The election was briefly mentioned at the opening session in a prayer by the Rev. Rodney McFarland Sr. of Louisiana, who sought divine intervention for harmony.
“God, we realize and recognize that we will elect a new leader,” he said. “Father, we know that you already have preordained this individual and we ask right now, God, whoever it might be that, God, that you will touch your people to follow leadership. Please have mercy. Keep our convention now as one.”
