Spain’s Baptist Union will accept State subsidies

Manuel López, MADRID, España, October 26, 2006

Madrid, October 26. - Spain’s Baptist Evangelical Union (UEBE) has brought to an end its Taxi Heathrow Airport dual position. Up to now, the Union itself fully rejected any State subsidies while most local churches willingly accepted public funds. The recent UEBE’s convention held at the mediterranean tourist resort Gandia (Valencia) has approved the acceptance of public funded subsidies with 104 votes in favour, 83 against and 14 abstentions.

The agenda included a revision of the unexpected agreement approved by a slim majority at the previous Convention whereby the €12000 assigned to this denomination by the Pluralism and Coexistence Fund in concept of ‘denominational coordination’ as aid towards infrastructure could not be accepted. The newly agreed acceptance of public funds (similar to that which has been happening in the remaining historic and new denominations) places the Baptist Union back in the “common house” of Spanish Protestants, i.e. the Federation of Spanish Evangelical Religious Entities (FEREDE) of which the UEBE is a historic cofounder denomination.

Factors which biased the representatives’ voting decisions towards the practice of most UEBE's own churches were the well-informed communication of professor Maximo Garcia-Ruiz, chairman of Madrid’s Evangelical Council (CEM) and the outstanding speech by Maria-Rosa Medel, secretary of the board of directors of Spain’s Union of Evangelical Women (UDME) and director of the Women’s department of CEM. Both speeches in favour of voting yes were made in a personal capacity, as Madrid’s first Baptist Church to which they both belong had rejected by a slim majority acceptance of public funds. (Rejection which was on paper and not in practice, i.e. the Reform Day arranged by CEM for next week has received a public funded subsidy worth €3000 from the region of Madrid).

This reflects the “schizophrenia” of a large proportion of Spanish Baptist leaders before the historical agreement that was achieved at the recent 54th convention. While the Union itself fully rejected any subsidies from the State appealing even to the situation of the Christian church in Roman times, local churches had been indiscriminately accepting monetary subsidies from public funds, aid from abroad from unchecked sources, tax benefits, land surrendered for the construction of temples, shipments of food for social aid and a long etcetera.

Last year’s Convention was notable due to a lady, Madrid designer and Bible Society executive Lola Calvo, who forced voting sessions to be repeated no less than 13 times. Repeat voting was necessary for the Convention not to elect a woman as vice chairperson. Calvo successively achieved more votes than male candidates but did not manage to reach the required two thirds. This time another lady also from Madrid, publishing manager Maria-Rosa Medel received the longest ovation of the event after speaking in favour of applying common sense to the debate on whether to accept public funds for cultural, educational and social integration programmes, while at the same time making room for women in UEBE’s management bodies.

Medel referred to the Convention slogan: “May my people march”, which in her own words should not be interpreted as “May women iron”. Women still have a long way to go within Spain’s Baptist Union structures, even if it is fair to admit that Baptists are pioneers in facilitating access for women to exercise as pastors. In fact, female Pastor Esther Rodriguez from Granada was in charge of a devotional in the Convention. But in the moment of truth UEBE is still ‘a man’s world’, with no women on the board of directors or in the UEBE Special Commission Project Programme which is made up of 6 men who will need to reinvent the Union together with its chairman, Barcelona pastor Roberto Velert.

Full equality of women is now a priority in the Spanish society. While Zapatero’s government is constituted equally of male and female ministers, there are still evangelical churches in Spain where women must wear a veil and be quiet in the congregation. Thank God these are not Baptist churches. UEBE’s churches have a shorter road to go but compared with Zapatero’s 50/50 cabinet the UEBE’s 100/0 at management level shows there is plenty to be done for UEBE to get itself in step with the times.

Having reached normality with regard to relationships with the State, the next frontier to cross is none other than full equality of women within the leadership. The Baptist Union will benefit greatly from the numerous valuable women presently consigned to the background. The author of this article can vouch for this with full awareness as he once was Lola Calvo’s boss and is Maria-Rosa Medel’s husband.

Manuel Lopez, especially for ALC Noticias (English).