Former Presidents Carter and Clinton, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and novelist John Grisham are among leaders of the Baptist community who will convene Wednesday through Friday in Atlanta for the Celebration of the New Baptist Covenant.

The event is being held to celebrate the covenant, an agenda initiated by Mr. Carter in 2006 that spells out who Baptists are as stated in Luke 4,, said Lance Wallace, the director of communications at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta and spokesman for New Baptist..

"The over-arching theme is Unity in Christ; the idea is to join together to address key concepts and looking for ways to work together," he said.

New Baptist Covenant's Web site describes the covenant as an "informal alliance of more than 30 racially, geographically, and theologically diverse Baptist organizations from throughout North America that claim more than 20 million members."

Signed by Mr. Carter and several other representatives from American and Canadian Baptist denominations and organizations, the covenant states that the leaders "reaffirmed their commitment to traditional Baptist values, including sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications for public and private morality" and that they have "committed themselves to their obligations as Christians to promote peace with justice, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick ... and promote religious liberty and respect for religious diversity."

Mr. Wallace said that the celebration has been a bipartisan effort and that coordinators "have not tried to make this a Democratic meeting."

It is free and open to the public, including Southern Baptists, Mr. Wallace said. He said that although some of the attendees are representatives from churches that are also aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention, he has gotten no word that convention leaders are interested in attending.

"They've been encouraged," Mr. Wallace said. "President Carter has (talked) with Frank Page (the Southern Baptist Convention president and a former pastor of Augusta's Warren Baptist Church), and since (a) news conference last April, he's tried to communicate with him what will be happening at this meeting, has tried to make sure they understood that they're welcome. Now, at this point, the convention leadership has pretty much chosen not to participate."

The Rev. Bill Harrell, the pastor of Abilene Baptist Church in Martinez and the chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee, said the convention "is concentrating on winning the world to Christ."

"The Southern Baptist Convention is going to continue to dispense the Gospel to a world that needs it," he said. "We're going to continue to stand for the basic Baptist principles.

"We're gong to continue to uphold the infallible and inerrant word of God, and what Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and that group (are) doing in Atlanta is basically the moderate wing of our convention trying to make a statement as to who they are, and they have every right to do that.

"But the Southern Baptist Convention is going to concentrate on who we are and what we do under the Lord's guidance. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and the people who would follow them can continue to do what they feel they need to do."

The Rev. Greg DeLoach, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Augusta, and several of the church's lay leaders and staffers will attend the Atlanta meeting.

Dr. DeLoach, who will be a moderator for a panel discussion on HIV/AIDS, said he "can't explain or respond to why some Southern Baptist leaders choose to not participate."

"There are politicians on both sides of the political aisle. To me, I think there is an attempt to be as representative as possible," the pastor said. "But unfortunately, part of the messiness of Baptist history is that there's not always been a willingness to work together with people that you may have either political or even theological differences.

The meeting, he said, "is the first time, really, in any meaningful way, since the Civil War -- and prior to the Civil War -- that Baptists have gotten together across racial lines."

"We have African-Americans in our congregation and so forth, so it's not like we heretofore haven't been in some ways integrated, but largely the denomination tends to be unfortunately divided according to racial lines," Dr. DeLoach said. "We're excited about this. We feel like (there are) many national and world issues that need attention, and instead of focusing on things that have in the past divided us, we're looking at how we can come together. I think it's a great opportunity for our church and other Baptists to come together as one."

Mr. Wallace said the event's intended outcome is uncertain.

"A lot of people are trying to decide what is the outcome of this meeting going to be. And we really can't tell at the outset," the New Baptist Covenant spokesman said. "We really have to see in the days and weeks following the meeting as to ways in which these organizations start working together with more intentionality to address those issues."

Reach C. Samantha McKevie at (706) 823-3552 or samantha.mckevie@augustachronicle.com.