For the first time in its 174-year history, the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association removed a church from its membership because it ordained women as deacons.

First Baptist Church of Cape Girardeau was removed from association membership by a vote of 98-41 for ordaining six women as deacons in May. A two-thirds majority vote was needed for removal.

"We will still be a First Baptist Church," said the Rev. Dr. John Owen, pastor of the 165-year-old congregation. "Our focus remains a local church."

The association is made up of 30 churches in an area from St. Mary to Advance.

Although it is no longer an association member, First Baptist continues to be aligned with the Missouri Baptist and Southern Baptist conventions.

"We will continue to do church at the local level, which we believe is the biblical focus of God's work anyway," he said.

Baptist churches are autonomous, so the vote to remove First Baptist from the network of area churches isn't a form of punishment or a reprimand. It is simply a disagreement.

The vote "was a grievous thing," said the Rev. Joe McCullough, pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. No one enjoyed having to vote or discuss the issue.

The vote wasn't meant to convey that women are second class but is a matter of determining roles as laid out in scripture, said the Rev. Glen Golden, moderator for the association.

Some interpretations of scripture say that only men should be ordained as deacons. Others say that both men and women served as deacons in New Testament churches and should be eligible to serve today.

"You can say it's a cultural issue and that roles were different 2,000 years ago," Golden said. "But if this part is cultural, where do you draw the line?"

The decision wasn't an action made in haste.

A committee studied the issue of ordination for a year before making its report last week at an annual meeting at Red Star Baptist church in Cape Girardeau. The committee agreed unanimously that no homosexual or woman should be ordained to the ministry. However, it did not say that ordaining women as deacons should be a test for associational membership. The report was rejected and a vote taken.

Many Baptists have struggled with the issue of ordaining women, though few churches in Southeast Missouri have done so. First Baptist Church in Sikeston was removed from the Charleston Baptist Association about two years ago for ordaining a woman to serve as a hospital chaplain.

Women do serve as deacons in other Baptist churches across the state, though mostly in Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis. Those churches remain members of their local associations.

"We believe that women deacons are not unbiblical," Owen said. "There are women Baptist deacons in Missouri Baptist churches across the state."

Golden said the issue likely will become a statewide issue and ultimately a convention-wide issue for Southern Baptists.