Black Baptist Leader Asks For Forgiveness Some Pastors Threaten Action If Lyons Doesn’t Resign By Today

Even as the leader of the nation’s largest black church asked for forgiveness Tuesday, a group of dissident pastors demanded his resignation and threatened to release documents showing he misused denomination funds.

“I’ve come again to ask you to forgive me for my errors, to forgive me for my mistakes, and to look upon me as your brother,” the Rev. Henry J. Lyons said in an appeal at the annual meeting of the 8.5 million-member National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc. “I need to know I am forgiven.”

But a group of about two dozen pastors, including the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, said Lyons had tainted the church’s reputation with allegations that he used church funds to purchase real estate, jewelry, and cars.

Unless Lyons agreed to resign by this morning, the pastors threatened to release court records and other documents they say corroborate many of the allegations made against Lyons, a pastor in St. Petersburg, Fla., who came to the presidency promising financial reform.

“We are prepared to deliver certified documents … to the convention and to request his expulsion,” said the pastors’ statement, which was read by the Rev. Kenneth Whalum of Memphis as he was surrounded by supporters outside the Denver Convention Center.

The dissident pastors also sharply criticized the decision by the Executive Board on Monday to give Lyons a vote of confidence. The Executive Board, which is appointed by Lyons, said it had found no financial misdealings and no reason for Lyons to step down.

Tuesday, in another move condemned by Lyons’ critics, church delegates reaffirmed the Executive Board’s vote of confidence in him. But the vote was taken when more than half the estimated 2,000 delegates had left the convention hall for lunch. About 50,000 people are attending the convention.

“The leaders standing with me have come forth to denounce the recommendation of the board and the subsequent vote taken today on the floor of the convention meeting,” the pastors’ statement said.

“The only people who have had a chance to be heard are those people who are around Dr. Lyons,” said the Rev. Albert F. Campbell of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

Campbell resigned as a member of the church’s Ethics Committee, which has been investigating the allegations against Lyons. He claimed the panel was not interested in making a serious investigation of the denomination’s embattled president.

For his part, Lyons has repeatedly denied misusing church funds.

During his opening address, Lyons said his administration has raised money for black colleges and seminaries. Lyons also said that he had made “tremendous mistakes,” for which he had asked God’s forgiveness. He did not elaborate. “I stand before you today,” he said. “I know God has forgiven me.”

Lyons’ troubles started on July 6 when his wife, Deborah, was arrested and charged with starting a fire inside a $700,000 waterfront home in St. Petersburg that Lyons had bought with Bernice Edwards, a convicted embezzler whom he had hired as the church’s corporate relations director. Deborah Lyons at first told authorities she believed her husband was having an affair with Edwards. She later retracted that statement.

Since then federal and state criminal investigators have been looking into how Lyons used church funds to purchase real estate and a Mercedes Benz sedan, among other items.