First Baptist Church in Charleston, the earliest of the Baptist churches in the South and one of the oldest in the United States, will host a “Baptist History Celebration” Aug. 1-3.
The conference will bring together speakers and historians representing a wide variety of Baptists – to include Southern Baptists, American Baptists, African-American Baptists, independent Baptists, Missionary Baptists, Swedish Baptists and Primitive Baptists.
What are viewed as para-denominational groups such as the Baptist World Alliance and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship also will be represented.
The event has been in the planning for five years by more than 20 Baptist groups. Its aim is to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the establishment in Philadelphia of the first association of Baptist churches in the United States.
Southern Baptist executive directors and editors gathered in Philadelphia in February to mark the tricentennial of the Philadelphia Baptist Association.
Vice chairman of the officers who planned the celebration is Bill Sumners, director of the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville.
The program for the conference, which opens with a 7:30 p.m. session on Aug. 1 and concludes with a meeting starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday, is available online at www.baptisthistorycelebration.org. The program includes five plenary sessions and six breakout sessions. The cost of regular admission is $100 and $50 for students. After May 15, costs will increase to $125 and $65.
In 2002, several Baptists from different backgrounds met at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., to determine whether such a meeting was even possible.
“Those who attended the meeting,” according to a statement at the website, “recognized the difference and diversity among this group of Baptists and acknowledged that our commonality rested in our history.”
The statement goes on to say, “Never in the history of the Baptist faith has such a meeting been attempted.”
First Baptist Church, Charleston, is a vital part of the history being celebrated Aug. 1-3. The congregation was organized in 1682 in Kitterey, Maine, sponsored by the First Baptist Church of Boston. Late in 1696, pastor William Screven and 28 members of the Kittery congregation moved to Charleston.
First Baptist will observe its own celebration – the 325th anniversary of its founding – in September.