About Us
Why?
The Open Baptist Network is a pastoral response to an urgent and continuing need: providing a means of ministerial endorsement for Baptist ministers who are, or may become, unable to hold accreditation with the Baptist Union of Great Britain because they are in a same-sex relationship or marriage, as well as those who are in theological education for Baptist ministry but who could not be accredited under the current rules.
This is not a separatist movement. We do not seek to break away from BUGB, but to meet a need that the current Ministerial Recognition Rules leave unaddressed, while remaining part of the wider Baptist family in Britain.
At our heart is a covenant through which churches and individuals commit to walk together: open to God, open to one another, and open to God’s world. The covenant begins by affirming the Baptist Union’s Declaration of Principle and cherishing the Five Core Values for a Gospel People, signalling our continuity with the shared Baptist heritage we hold dear.
We exist for ministers who already face the loss of accreditation, and also for those who sense a call to Baptist ministry yet feel inhibited from pursuing it under the current rules. We hope to be a place where such callings can be endorsed, nurtured and affirmed.
Our
Story
Get to Know Us
In March 2024, the Baptist Union Council voted not to change the Ministerial Recognition Rules. The decision reaffirmed that ministers in same-sex marriages cannot hold accreditation, while upholding the liberty of local churches to call ministry according to their own governing documents.
The consultation behind that decision revealed a wide diversity of conviction across the Baptist family, and the Council acknowledged the deep pain the process had caused. It left a continuing reality: faithful ministers facing the loss of their accreditation because of their sexuality or their relationships.
In this context, a group of Baptist ministers and church leaders spent many months in prayerful discernment about how to respond, pastorally and practically, to those affected. The Open Baptist Network is the fruit of that discernment.
We have come to this with sadness that it is necessary, but with hope for a way forward that honours both the breadth of the Baptist family and the calling of ministers who face the repercussions of the rules. As one of our founding members puts it: while we lament the need for such a network, we believe it can become a safe and secure home for those whose call to ministry has been endorsed and affirmed.
The Network has grown out of a discernment group of Baptist leaders with long experience in British and international Baptist life: the Revd Luke Dowding, the Revd Dr Keith G. Jones, the Revd David Kerrigan, the Revd Dr Simon Oxley, the Revd Tony Peck, the Revd Dr Clara Rushbrook, and the Revd Dawn Savidge. Many others have contributed through listening exercises, one-to-one conversations, and in prayer and wisdom.