UPDATE at 11 a.m.: Updated to include comment from Paige Patterson and details about the convention sermon.

In yet another blow to the Southern Baptist leader’s status, officials announced Friday morning that Paige Patterson has stepped down from the role of convention preacher at the denomination’s annual meeting in Dallas.

For weeks, Patterson, 75, has been at the center of controversy stemming from his treatment of women. Starting with comments urging women to stay with abusive husbands and culminating with allegations that he withheld information about a rape investigation, Patterson has become a target of the #MeToo movement of Southern Baptists.

In an email to SBC president Steve Gaines, Patterson said his decision came after "days of soul-searching before our God," according to the Baptist Press.

"All of this I do with a heart full of confidence in our God and with the hope that He will favor the convention and her churches with the benediction of heaven," Patterson wrote. The decision is "an effort to protect my family as much as I can," he said.

Patterson also denied wrongdoing in a letter to Southern Baptists and said that he will not attend the meeting in Dallas.

"Recently, I have been accused, publicly and privately, of a number of things — none of which I acknowledge as having done in the way portrayed," Patterson wrote.

Kie Bowman, senior pastor of Austin's Hyde Park Baptist Church, will give the sermon in his place, according to the Baptist Press. Bowman was elected as alternate to Patterson at last year's Southern Baptist Convention meeting.

Earlier demotions

Patterson was removed from his role as president of Fort Worth’s Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on May 23 and was stripped of his emeritus title and role as “theologian-in-residence” on May 30.

In announcing that sanction, Kevin Ueckert, chairman of the seminary's board of trustees, called Patterson’s actions “antithetical to the core values of our faith.”

Patterson’s role as convention preacher, however, was still up in the air before this morning. According to Southern Baptist Convention rules, he would be removed from that important spot only if he chose to step down or if delegates to the meeting — called “messengers” — voted him out once the annual meeting opened.

Seminary chief of staff Scott Colter announced on Twitter this morning that Patterson stepped down voluntarily.

Paige Patterson has announced his kind withdrawal from the convention sermon and evangelism report at #SBC18 in an effort to bring harmony to the Southern Baptist Convention. A full statement will release shortly. — Z. Scott Colter ✒️ (@ScottColter) June 8, 2018

Throughout the controversy, the speech in Dallas, originally scheduled for Wednesday, served as Patterson’s last hold on power in the convention.

The removal of Patterson in particular sends shock waves through the Southern Baptist community. He was a larger-than-life figure among Baptists and was an architect of the faith’s conservative resurgence of the 1980s. For some, Patterson’s fall from grace reflects larger issues within the faith.

"It is as if bombs are dropping and God alone knows how many will fall and where they will land," Al Mohler, one of Patterson's contemporaries who also led the convention during the conservative resurgence, wrote earlier in a self-published column. "Judgment has now come to the house of the Southern Baptist Convention. The terrible swift sword of public humiliation has come with a vengeance. There can be no doubt that this story is not over."

In late April, previously released videos of Patterson’s sermons were recirculated online. In one, Patterson made comments about a 16-year-old girl, saying she “was nice.” In another, he said he urged a woman to stay with her abusive husband. When she returned with a black eye, he said he was “very happy” because the husband had come to church with her for the first time.

Patterson released a brief apology statement on the Fort Worth seminary’s website, asking forgiveness for “the failure to be as thoughtful and careful in my extemporaneous expression as I should have been.”

As trustees met in an emergency meeting to discuss the controversial statements on May 22, The Washington Post published new allegations that Patterson had urged a female student not to report a rape to police.

"They shamed the crap out of me, asking me question after question," the woman told The Post. "He didn't necessarily say it was my fault, but [the sense from him was] I let him into my home."

After meeting until the early morning hours, the seminary trustees announced that Patterson would take the role of president emeritus while still serving as “theologian-in-residence” on campus.

A week later, Patterson was fired from that honorary position. Ueckert’s statement said that the school’s executive committee was given new evidence that Patterson had requested a personal meeting with a rape victim in an effort to “break her down” and keep her from going to police.