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SOUTH CAROLINA BAPTIST CONVENTION WELCOMES POPE
[The following report is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 5, Issue 4, 1988. David W. Cloud, Editor. The author holds all rights to this material. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail). FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0.]
Before the pope came to America last year and held an ecumenical meeting in the state of South Carolina, the Southern Baptist Convention of South Carolina issued a formal letter to the pope welcoming him to the state. The SBC state convention, composed of 1,779 churches with 679,000 members, said, "We are pleased that the University of South Carolina and the Diocese of Charleston have extended to you an invitation to visit our great state ... We look forward with pleasure and excitement to your coming in September 1987. We pray that your visit may be the occasion for the strengthening of the common bond of faith and love for Christ which all of us who are Christians share" (Baptist Press, News Service of the Southern Baptist Convention, April 16, 1987, pp. 5-6, #87-57).
The committee also urged South Carolina Baptists to "take this opportunity to learn more about the Catholic Church and to look upon the pope's visit as an opportunity to know, understand and appreciate one another."
The committee "wanted to be sure the pope knew South Carolina Baptists generally welcomed his visit to our state," said E. C. Watcon, executive assistant to executive-secretary treasurer of the state convention.
Support for the Pope also came from Flynn T. Harrell, state convention president: "It is my pleasure to welcome such a distinguished religious leader to our state. I am pleased that the students of the university and the citizens of South Carolina will have the opportunity to hear such a major religious leader."