FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) -- The leader of Polish Baptists is expressing his "regret and sorrow" about a meeting, planned for Warsaw this summer, that at least one Southern Baptist Convention leader has described as an organizational gathering for "an alternative to the Baptist World Alliance."

"With great surprise and sorrow rumors have reached us telling us that the Southern Baptist Convention is making plans to meet in Poland the same week of the Baptist World Alliance Centenary Congress in Birmingham, England, to organize a new alternative to the Baptist World Alliance," said Leszek Wakula, the Polish Baptist Union's general secretary, in a statement released Feb. 10 by BWA officials.

"We would like to officially acknowledge that neither the Executive Board of the union [n]or its members are aware of such a meeting in Warsaw or even of any plans for such," Wakula continued. "We express our regret and sorrow that if such a project is going to take place in Poland, then it takes place behind our back."

On Jan. 18, during an appearance in Washington on an unrelated subject, SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land mentioned the meeting in response to a question about the SBC's decision last year to withdraw from BWA, a world-wide umbrella group for national and regional Baptist denominations.

At the time, SBC leaders cited a perceived "liberal" shift in some BWA member denominations among their reasons for leaving. They also hinted that they might spearhead the formation of an alternative global Baptist network with other "like-minded" Baptist bodies. But Land's comments were the first public notification about the formation of such a group.

Morris Chapman, the SBC's chief executive, confirmed the meeting, but also said Land had overstated its nature. "To call the meeting with some of the European Baptist leaders an 'organizational' meeting would be a mischaracterization," he told Associated Baptist Press. "Over the next several years we hope to travel to several continents meeting with like-minded Baptist leaders with the thought of developing a network or fellowship."

A global convocation to mark BWA's 100th anniversary is scheduled for July 27-31 in England.

---