Release Index Wday Eight Campus Mimisters-- 34 Southern Baptist Convention-1984 !bnclay Night Pastors' Conference--46 Kansas City, Ma. Pbnday P.M. budup-5 mnday F.eligious EElucators--23 ~s/ITNbunch-- 77 Music Conference--26 Mqtion of ~esolut ions--11 2 ~atiomlJerry Clower Award--87 Aclvance Rackqrourrl , Southwstern Semi~iry- New Or leans Alumni Luncheon--1.06 RFRA Award Winning Exhibit--79 Wninrj Session Tuesday--50 Baptist Faith arar3 mssage Fellowship--16 Pastors El ect-- 35 Bigraphy of Charles Stanley--61 Pastars' Conference ~umlup-47 Biography of Grady C. Cothen--60 Presidential Address--54 Biqraphy of Jolm Sullivan-- 59 Presidential Election--64 Campus Minist.ers Roundup- 39 Mi31 j c Af fa irs Amendment Lases-- 56 Canada ISSUE--88 Public Affairs Feprt--109 Church Music l?ounilup-4rl Religious Fx3ucators burdup-34 Clower At Breakfast--90 Report of Final Executive Committee--86 Committee kprts--70 Resolutions Committee Feature--15 Convention Registration, Pbnday Evening--4 Resolutions Testimony--66 Correction-- 18 Role of hbmn in Foreign Missions--78 Correction--33 Roudup for Fr irlay A.M. --lo3 Correct ion--45 Paudup for Thursday A.M.--80 Correct ion-- 73 Roudup for Thursday P.M.--98 Cutlines--105 Rnumlup for Tuesday A.M.--17 Cutl ines--707 Fburdup for Tuesday P .PI.--22 Cutlines-1-3, 3b, 4-5b, 6, 11, 12--53 bur~lupfar hednesday A. M .-- 4R Cutlines-20, 26, 25, 29, 30-84 ~udupfor Wdnesday P .M. -49 Cut,liries-28, 19, 36, 23, 23b, 23c--82 SPX: Forum mundup-41 Cutlines-8,22--83 SFK:m~~iup-115 hvid Mitthews at Forum-116 Sutheastern ,%minary Lunck~eon--94 Directors of F:j ssions Wrapup- 20 Southern Seminary Alumni Luncheon--91 Dunn Press Conference--72 Southwstern Seminary Luncheon-95 Early Wednesday mrning Sessiow-R5 Stanley Rews Con£erence-- 76 mitor 's Wte: :Qrtin--Rl 2 Su-slay Afternan Music Conference--9 Evangel ists--49 Sunday Carrp?us Plinisters-- 30 Evangelists--99 Sunday Directors' of Missions--13 Executive Committee Organizes--97 Sunr3ay Pastors' Conference--14 Exhibition Hall Feature-52 S~uldayPel i gious F~3ucators--10 Foreign Mission Raard Report--101 Sumlay School l?arcl Report-- Cis Gambling Action--1.10 Sunday WMU--11 Gor3 sey At Fbr uw- 38 Thursday Kfternoon Feprts--113 Golden Gate Alumni--1 04 Thursday Aftermn Reprts--114 Hawkins Named Pastors ' Head-- 58 Thursday Fbrning mtions--111 Ilohbs at SiX Fururn--35 Thursday Fbrning Remxts--1OR Horn Mission Bard Report--75 Tuesday Aftermn Resolutions/~tj.ons--65 Hotel Fi~c---1 Tuesday Morning Business--55 Linda kiiver-Wi Iliam--3 Tuesday Wrninq Executive Committee--51 , Marilyl huvak Feature--67 Tuesday Night Sessiow-74 6 Neetic: of Conservatives-- 7 Unsol icited Eandouts-- 24 .& Mcm tc" &porters & Editors--9 MIU Afternoon Session-- 25' < Midwst Ykn Al.umni--96 WM_r Evening Session--a3 Ministers ' Wives Luncheon--62 h;ERT Prayer Conference--6 Missions Day Camp-57 WMU mudup-42 Wnclay A.M. Rounrlup-4 Wednesday A.M. Sermon--92 Wday +&£terncon Executive Committee--63 Wednesday brning Agency Reprts--03 ~%ndayAfternoon Pastors' Conference--31 FJednesclay Night Business-- 102 Momlay Campus !+8nisters--32 Wdnesclay Niqht Reprts--100 Ibnday Executive Cornmi ttee-- 29 kdncsday mrning Agency bprts--89 bbladay Pbrning Pastors' Conference--21 hbmen in Ministry Wrap-LJp-12 Pbrxlay bbrning W-27 Women in Ministry, Susan I,. Wright--? 1 News Room Southern Baphst Convention ~une12-14, 1984 Room 209 East Bartle Convention Center Kansas City, Missouri (816) 346-0624 SBC Press Representative Dan Wn News Room Manager caie Photo and Features Manager Ha+ r I rl',e FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE KANSAS CITY, Mo,, June 10--Arson is the suspected cause of a Saturday hotel fire here that gutted the room a£ four Southern Baptist Convention news room person- nel in town for the 127th annual meeting of the denomination, police said Sunday. An arson investigator for the Kansas City police department questioned the four, all women, following the late afternoon blaze that apparently started on a bed in the 15th-floor room of the Americana Hotel, at Wyandotte and 13th Streets. one block from Bartle Convention Center where the three dav convention starts Tuesday, No serious injuries were reported, although a private security guard and a v-nsas City policeman suffered £ram minor smoke inhalation, fire department spokes- man Joseph D. Galetti, said. Each of the women--Faye Byrnesand her daughter, Serena Wllkins~n,bath of the Nashville, Tennessee, area, Gaye Eichler of Dallas, Texas, and Vern Myers of Fort Worth, Texas--denied emphatically leaving anything an the bed that could have started the blaze. None of them was in the roam when the fire broke out at about 4:15 p.m. Galetti said all 350 guests in the 500-room facility were safely evacuated without incident, He said 11 fire companies responded to the first alarm at 4:24 p.m. and that the first firemen on the 15th floor found one of the beds in Room 1520 ablaze. But the fire was confined to that room, he added, with limited amoke damage to other rooms on the floor. The four wornen were moved to a room on the 14th floor, as were other guests, including same messengers to the convention. Arson is suspected, police explained, because about $400 cash and other oer- aanal effects were missing from charred purses and pocketbooks faund in the debris. As of midday Sunday, hotel officials had not allowed the women to inspect the room and were described by the victims as "generally uncooperative." Red Cross personnel provided Immediate assistance, however, including a cash voucher for each of the women to buy clothing. Two other 15th floor guests, veteran Southern Baptist foreign missionaries Charles and Indy Whitten, of Equatorial Guinea, escaped by crawling along the corridor through smoke so thick "we couldn't see a thing." They were napping %thenthe first fire alarm sounded and turned on the television set, thinking the alarm was for a tornado. (The Kansas City area has been the site for three days of intense storms and the city was under a tornado watch the afternoon and evening of the fire.) -Dl0 re- Page 2--Hotel fire After opening their door and seeing no smoke, Whitten went back into the room and called the hotel operator, who advised him to leave. immediately and use the staixway. When he opened the door the second time, he said, the hall was filled with smoke. They crawled to one end of the hall but could not find the stairway, Whitten said. They then returned to their room, where the operator told them a second tjme to leave. This time, after crawling to the other end of the hall, they found the exit door and walked safely down 15 flights of stairs to safety . The Whittens' escape was complicated by the fact that Mrs. Whitten's right leg is in an ankle cast, the result of a broken foot. In the frantic moments before they reached safety and fresh air at the 15th-floor stairway, she said her thought was, "I really hate about not going to Guinea." After spending 36 years in Argen- tina and Spain, the Whittens are scheduled to depart: shortly for Equatorial Guinea. A 2lst-floor guest, SBC Stewardship Commission executive James Powell 06 Nashville, said smoke between the 15th and 21st floors was so intense that guests on hie floor seeking to flee down stairways were forced ta retreat. They ended up facing a padlocked doar on the 28th floor. On their second try down, all escaped, Powell said, He said one fireman encouraged him as he fought his way through the smoke telling him, "You can make it ." Sheryl Churchill, Baptist Young Women consultant for the Woman's Missionary Union of Birmingham, Alabama, and a 16th-floor guest, reported that all guests on her floor evacuated "with no prablem. 'I By Stan Hastey--3 p.m. Sunday News Room + b Southern Baptist Convention June 12-14, 1984 Room 209 East Bartle Convention Center Kansas City, Missouri (816) 346-0624 Wihw C. Fidds SBC Press Representative Dan Martin News Room Manager Craig Bird Photo and Features Manager FOR XWDIATE RELEASE WOMEN IN MINISTRY WRAP KANSAS CITY, June 10--The second annual Women in Winistry, S.B.C. ~onferencedrew more than twice the number of people as the 1983 meeting, reflecting increased interest in women's issues in Southern Baptist life. About 180 people registered for this year's meeting, one of several held before the June 12-14 Southern Baptist Convention. Some 250 people, including 40 men, attended the Sunday morning worship service, where Susan Lockwaod Wright, pastor cf Cornell Avenue Baptist Church, Chicago, preached. Only 80 persons registered for the 1983 meeting in Pittsburgh. The double attendance, contended Anne Davis, dean af the'Carver?SEhohl-6f Church Social Work at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky,, makes the rneetlng "by any Baptist standard a success." Several persons attending the conference added that the increase in attend- ance "signifies that Southern Baptist women in ministry are gaining momentum and that God's Spirit is responsible for the growth. '" Following a year of financial struggle, Anne Neal, chairperson of the Women in Ministry, S. B.C. steering committee, announced that Woman's Missionary Union, SBC, auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, intends to include Women in Ministry, S,B.C. as a line item in their 1985 budget. WMU also allowed the fledgling group to use its meeting facilities at the Radisson-Muehlebach Hotel during off-hours of their own pre-SBC meeting. New steering committee members selected ta serve two-year terms are Nancy Ellett of Dallas; Dsbf Lastinger"Pitman of Kansas City, Missouri; Irene Bennett of Gainaville, Florida; Sylvia NadSer of Plainview, Texas; Ann Hickey of Washington, D.C.; Ashli Peak of Columbia, Missouri; and Jane Medema of San Francisco.