Hatcher Memorial’s old church house sits along busy Dumbarton Road in the Lakeside community of Richmond. It is dwarfed by the grand Georgian sanctuary which replaced it in 1955. It is a little worn at the heels; but just as it has since it was erected in 1925, the building still serves the community. And the members of the African Christian Community Church who worship, sing, laugh and rejoice inside are happy to call it home. The old Sunday school classrooms have been converted into a learning center where children and youth of African immigrants and refugees improve their literacy skills.
Fred Anderson
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There is an old photograph from 1937 which shows the charter members of Hatcher at the church’s 15th anniversary. They are standing on the steps leading to the front door of the old church house. If they could reassemble there today, they would be in for a surprise!
They would find that clothing styles have changed dramatically, that Richmond’s telephone numbers have passed the four digits of yesterday and that dusty Dumbarton Road is paved and wider than they remembered. Standing in the shadow of the great steeple of the newer building, they would be amazed by everything around them.
Society and culture have changed in numerous ways. And after these charter members of 1922 have a chance to get caught up, they also might be pleased to see that the church they planted has become inclusive and has embraced men and women, boys and girls most in need of a Christian environment.
The auditorium of the old building which the founders erected still has its beautiful stained-glass and the brass rail of its former balcony. But today the worship services inside moves to a different beat. The accents are reminders of faraway Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Zambia and Sudan. The mission fields which the founders helped undergird with their Lottie Moon offerings have come to Richmond.
Lott Cary’s story was a summer lesson for children of African heritage.
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In 2003 Calvin A. Birch, a graduate of the Liberian Baptist Theological Seminary, recognized the need for a church receptive to the increasing number of African refugees. The long and horrific civil war in Liberia prompted many Liberians to seek a safe haven in America. Other Africans also needed a refuge. In developing the new church, Calvin Birch collaborated with several caring entities: the Richmond Baptist Association, the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia. Hatcher Memorial offered space. The BGAV included the new church start in its Alma Hunt Offering for Virginia Missions. The RBA provided volunteer support. The Virginia Baptist Foundation awarded a grant for the African Church’s Barnabas Project which meets “physical, educational and spiritual needs” of these new Americans.
The Richmond Association’s Partnership Missions Team looked all around the world for a future missions project and decided that it was right at home. The African Church is the hometown partner. The congregation has received benefits of food and clothing as well as a tutoring ministry. This summer the RBA is supporting a summer program, offering a variety of activities which encompass most of the workday hours.
James Nunnally, who grew up in New Bridge Baptist Church in the Richmond suburbs, has led the summer program during a sabbatical from his seminary studies at Southwestern Seminary in Texas. A graduate of Bluefield College, “Jamie” Nunnally considers himself “a work in progress” and believes that part of his development comes from serving God’s children.
Jamie is multi-tasking as he relates to a wide range of ages at the same time. There are precious little children alongside bright older youth. “God is using this experience to develop my ministry skills,” says Nunnally. “Just getting to know these kids is definitely worth it to me.” The summer program is a lesson even for its main teacher!
He has had the assistance of volunteers. Ruth Guill, the intrepid and indefatigable partnership missions coordinator, lined up many friends from among Richmond Baptist churches. They bring lunches and others bring their talents.
Even this columnist had a chance to participate in the summer program. I brought the museum of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society to Hatcher’s old church house. In the auditorium where once revivalists held forth, this historian shared the chief story of Virginia’s connection with Africa. I asked for a show of hands as to how many of the youth were born in Liberia and most hands were raised. I asked how many knew of Lott Cary and no hands went up. I had a ready audience for my lesson!
I told the basic story of Lott Cary. I told them that he was born in 1780 into slavery in Charles City County which today is less than an hour’s drive from their church. I told them of his move to Richmond, of his saving enough money to purchase his freedom and that of his wife and children, of his acceptance into the First Baptist Church of Richmond where on occasion he preached to a mixed-race congregation. I told that William Crane of Second Baptist Church, Richmond, taught him and interested him in the Liberian colonization movement. I told of his planting a Liberian church in Richmond and transporting it by ship to Liberia. I repeated the claim that Lott Cary was the first missionary of any race or nation to the continent of Africa. I told of his accomplishments in his new country.
I began my lesson with some artifacts which by fortunate happenstance had just come to the Historical Society’s collection. I showed the drum of a witch doctor used before the medical missionary came. It had belonged to the late Eva Sanders, celebrated missionary nurse from Virginia to Nigeria. I used wood carvings of Africans engaged in agriculture and cottage-industry. They were gifts from the late Edna Frances Dawkins, missionary personnel supporter. I was trying to impress the African (now American) children with their own heritage, to show that native Africans made accomplishments before enslavement, and to impress that these youth have a worthy hero figure in Lott Cary. The real lesson conveyed that summer day in the old church house was the same lesson taught there all through the years: “Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies, located on the campus of the University of Richmond. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.