(RNS) — Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant group, have canceled the denomination’s annual meeting due to the spread of the coronavirus.
The decision, announced Tuesday (March 24) by Baptist Press, the denomination’s news service, means the meeting, which had been scheduled for June 9-10 in Orlando, Florida, will not be rescheduled for a later time. Instead, the denomination will skip a year and meet again in 2021.
The last time the SBC annual meeting was canceled was 1945, during World War II, when the United States government banned meetings of groups larger than 50 people.
Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, described the cancellation as “heartbreaking” but said, “The reality around us nationally and globally cannot be ignored.”
Just last week, the United Methodist Church announced it was postponing its 2020 General Conference, where delegates were expected to take up legislation to split the denomination.
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted multiple religious faiths to cancel in-person services and move to online services in an effort to stop the spread of the disease which has infected more than 44,000 Americans and led to more than 500 deaths.
In addition, states including California, Maryland, Illinois and Washington have declared stay-at-home or shutdown orders. And President Trump advised all Americans to…
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