The largest Baptist group the ‘Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)’ has voted to expel two churches for having female pastors as it believes men should be pastors and leaders in the church.

According to the Baptist Press, a vote by the SBC members found Southern Californian megachurch Saddleback and Kentucky’s Fern Creek Baptist Church were “not in friendly cooperation” with the Convention.

The SBC’s mission statement says the Office of Pastor should be “limited to men.”

With the ruling, Fern Creek’s Pastor told CBS News it was a “sad day for Southern Baptists”.

SBC contains more than 47,000 Baptist churches with a membership of more than 13 million.

Back in March, the church ruled to oust five churches across the U.S. because they allowed women to serve as pastors — including Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of the convention’s largest member churches.