Southern Baptists narrowly reject ban on women pastors

The Southern Baptist church has narrowly rejected a proposal to ban women as pastors.

Members voted 61.4% to 38.3% in favour of a ban. However, a two-thirds majority was required to amend the church's constitution.

The proposed amendment, which stated that “only men” could hold the role, would have affected women at hundreds of the church's 47,000 places of worship.

The Southern Baptist Convention and its nearly 13 million church members are mostly a conservative voting bloc in American elections.

The vote's failure is a blow to the group's hard-right faction, which has been vying for influence.

In a written statement, Meredith Stone, the executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, said she was "grieved" but "grateful" for the result of the vote in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"Even though the amendment did not pass, we are also grieved that this vote has ever even taken place," she said.

The amendment still received a majority vote, a fact that Ms Stone said "demonstrates that women in ministry are still devalued".

"Millions of women have heard as the incorrect message that they do not have equal value to God."

Proponents of the amendment say opposition to women pastors makes the church's position more clear on progressivism, such as LGBT rights.

The amendment also would have strengthened and hastened the ability to remove woman-led churches.

However, opponents said the process for removal is already fairly efficient.

On Tuesday, a church in Virginia that has a female pastor for women and children was expelled after a majority of delegates voted for removal.

Five other churches with female lead or senior pastors were removed last year.

“We have shown that the mechanisms we currently have are sufficient to deal with this question,” Spence Shelton, a North Carolina pastor, said from the floor, opposing the amendment.