GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - A South Carolina pastor has been elected president of the Southern Baptists Convention.

The Reverend Frank Page of Taylors was chosen Tuesday at the denomination's annual meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Page had said it would take a "miracle" for him to win.

Page is pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors.

He was the choice of a group of pastors who have complained the denomination suppresses disagreements over styles of worship and
doctrinal details.

Page got just over 50 percent of the vote on the first ballot today. He beat Ronnie Floyd, a successful megachurch pastor from Springdale, Arkansas, and Jerry Sutton, pastor at Two Rivers
Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sutton is currently the denomination's first vice president.