The
Triennial Convention (so-called because it met every three years) was the first national
Baptist denomination in the
United States. Founded in 1814 as the
General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions, it was formed to advance
missionary work and headquartered in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. In a dispute over
slavery and
missions policy, Baptist churches in the
South separated from the Triennial Convention and established the
Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. This split left the Triennial Convention largely
Northern in membership. In 1907, the Triennial Convention was reorganized into the Northern Baptist Convention, which was renamed the
American Baptist Churches USA in 1972.