GREENSBORO - For decades, getting an education at a Baptist college and retiring to one of its long-term care homes were part of what it meant to be a North Carolina Baptist.

But by the end of Wednesday's session at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center, the new and smaller Baptist State Convention emerged -- soon to be bereft of the formal bonds it had with its five Baptist colleges and universities, the Baptist Retirement Homes and the Woman's Missionary Union.

In deliberating these changes, about 2,500 delegates, called "messengers," expressed grief at the parting of ways with institutions they envisioned would always be part of the family fold. Although all Baptists will still have access to the institutions, there will soon be no formal connection to safeguard the relationships.

The messengers withheld nearly $500,000 from the Baptist Retirement Homes in a last-ditch effort to encourage them to follow proper procedures in severing ties. Two years ago, the retirement homes trustee board unilaterally amended its bylaws to eliminate its relationship with the convention. Retirement homes representatives were not present at discussions Wednesday, and messengers held out little hope they would follow the convention's rules for formally severing ties.

Messengers also voted to eliminate next year's funding for the Woman's Missionary Union. The union, which educates churches about missions, had been allocated more than $800,000 this year. But the group announced in August that it planned to leave the state convention's Cary headquarters and continue its work at another location. The convention will allow the union to raise money through special offerings taken among churches.

During his address to messengers, Milton Hollifield, the executive director-treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, said it was "painfully obvious we are in a state of transition."

But he added, "We must acknowledge that while these institutions work with the church, they are not the church."

If there was a silver lining to the two-day convention, it was the promise of a new relationship with the five colleges and universities. Although the schools will begin electing their own trustees in 2009 and gradually forgo the $1.2 million each receives annually from the convention, the five college presidents assured the messengers they wanted to continue to recruit students from Baptist churches and to keep the Christian character of their schools.

The severing of ties with the colleges will require one more vote at next year's session before it is final.

The decision to cut funding for the Woman's Union was particularly grating to many, because the union insisted it only wanted to work independently of the Cary headquarters, not leave the fold. Tony Cartledge, the former editor of the Biblical Recorder, said the convention was, in effect, "cutting off its nose to spite its face."

The first institution to slough off from the convention was Wake Forest University, whose trustees voted in the 1970s to elect its members independently of the convention. In the 1990s, Meredith College followed suit. Then Baptist Hospital negotiated a change that would allow the Winston-Salem institution to elect 50 percent of its trustees.

Many of the changes happened as the leadership of the organization became increasingly dominated by biblical literalists. The ideological divisions were exacerbated two years ago when several Baptists were denied positions as trustees at two of the convention's institutions. The nominees were rejected because the churches to which they belonged contributed money to a liberal Baptist group that supports same-sex marriages.

Those denials produced a lack of trust among the institutions, leading to an estrangement from the convention. In the case of the retirement homes, a complete breakdown in communications developed.

"The acrimony of these divisions should not be ignored," said Bill Leonard, dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University. "It represents the culmination of a long battle over ideas and institutional control."