First Baptist's bicentennial celebration under way

With roots that date to a period of religious intolerance in Colonial North Carolina, worshippers at New Bern's First Baptist Church gave thanks Sunday for religious freedom, beginning a year-long 200th anniversary celebration.

Since the church was founded in the home of Elijah Clark at Middle and Craven streets in May 1809, its influence has gone beyond the boundaries of the city, with pastors who were instrumental in the formation of the state Baptist organization and its education and mission programs.

"Two of our first pastors, Thomas Meredith and Samuel Wait, started Wake Forest University and Meredith College," said First Baptist Senior Pastor Dr. Steven Fitzgerald. "We have a very rich history."

After meeting at the Elijah Clark House, the church had its first building in 1811, a wooden structure at the corner of Johnson and Metcalf streets, where St. Cyprians Episcopal Church now stands.

The current First Baptist sanctuary was built in 1848, with 18-inch red brick walls in a gothic revival style. The plans for the building were similar to New York City's Madison Avenue Baptist Church.

The sanctuary, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, was built for $12,000 on a $1,000 lot.

It has had two renovations and one restoration project. The church has been in constant use except for three years of Union occupation during the Civil War.

When the church celebrated the sanctuary's 100th birthday in 1948, President Harry Truman was in the audience.

The church plans monthly events with special speakers and choral groups such as the N.C. Boys Choir and college choirs from Campbell, Chowan and Meredith.

Fitzgerald said the church's legacy did not come about easily.

"Baptists came with the original settlers, but they were not allowed to start a church here," he said. "Baptists were dissenters in Switzerland so they were brought over basically in chains."

Some Baptists, including people attempting to start the New Bern church, were jailed and whipped in public.

"They (Baptists) believed that you needed to be baptized as an adult, so the other (churches) that were still continuing infant baptisms considered the Baptists to be re-baptizers," Fitzgerald said. "And they thought that was a grievous sin, to re-baptize people."

The Rev. Roy Smith, retired executive director of the N.C. Baptist State Convention, delivered the message for Sunday's service. He told the congregation to be proud of its rich history and the people who guided the church through two centuries.

He noted the Revs. Meredith, Wait and the Rev. John Armstrong were among a group of seven ministers and seven lay people who founded the Baptist State Convention in 1830.

Meredith wrote the constitution for the Baptist group and also helped found The Biblical Recorder, the weekly journal of the Baptist State Convention.

Smith said the state group was formed not only as a means of organizing the state's Baptists, but also to lay the groundwork for an educational institution to train ministers.

The next celebration event is a church-wide picnic June 4 at Creekside Park, beginning at 4 p.m.

Charlie Hall can be reached at 635-5667 or chall@freedomenc.com.