It is February and there is still one house in my neighborhood with a Christmas tree in a front window. But most of us long ago stored our Christmas decorations to await another season.
The glow of certain Christmas memories remains; and on the night it happened — two days after Christmas Day — I resolved to share it with Virginia Baptists and to issue a challenge. The experience was a Christmas walk through downtown Frederick, Md.
Fred Anderson
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Katie and Isam Ballenger — former members of the First Baptist Church of Richmond and long active in Baptist life — invited us to visit their new community. “You must be here by late Monday afternoon,” they insisted, telling us about the annual Candlelight Tour of Historic Houses of Worship.
The Ballengers left Virginia in September 2009 to live near Frederick, where they would be near their daughter and just down the pike from their son in Baltimore. Their new home has a New Market address. “Watch out for the traffic when you go through New Market,” joked Isam. Although it is a charming village with antique shops, New Market does not suffer from traffic congestion.
It is a hop, skip and jump down the highway to Frederick, which is a bustling town with a pleasing mixture of architectural styles, including a treasure trove of historic churches which are all within walking distance of each other.
For 24 years the churches have hosted an open house tour just after Christmas. The year before some 8,000 persons entered the doors of those houses of worship on one single evening. The Ballengers, then new to the community, were among those on the tour and they were eager to introduce us to the experience.
I don’t know how many braved the extreme cold wind on the night of the 2010 tour; but I know at least four who shivered for several hours, finding temporary relief from cups of soup and hot chocolate given freely at several of the churches. Calvary United Methodist Church offered a satisfying soup and several of the members gave warm greetings and handshakes. The Methodists trace their history back to the 1770s and a visit from the noted Francis Asbury. The church house dates to 1930 and is an imposing stone structure of Gothic design. Some of their windows were made by the Tiffany studio.
One of Frederick’s churches decorated for the Christmas tour.
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There was little time to tarry since there were 13 houses of worship ready to receive visitors. Each of the Christian churches was resplendent with seasonal decorations and each had something special to offer, including musical selections or an historical commentary on their building.
At Beth Sholom Synagogue all eats were taken as visitors learned about Jewish customs and traditions, including an interesting talk about Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday which rubs shoulders each year with Christmas.
Trinity Chapel traces itself back to the German Reformed Church and is justly proud of its steeple, which dates to 1807. Fifty years ago Frederick’s various “clustered spires” (so described by the poet Whittier) began to be illuminated at night which gave the town a distinctive appearance.
The wind was whipping down Church Street as we church hopped from the Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ — a magnificent Greek Revival structure with Ionic portico and twin towers — to All Saints’ Episcopal, whose neo-gothic building was used as a hospital following Antietam.
We enjoyed a brief respite from the cold by going to the lower level of the Church of Christ where on exhibit was “the Christmas putz” or nativity scene. In a darkened room, visitors sat while a narrator told the nativity story and tiny spotlights beamed on each successive part of the journey to Bethlehem. There were 130 tiny people and animals in the church’s putz which had a landscape of moss and tiny trees and stones. It contained a mixture of pieces from plaster ones once sold in dime stores to hand-carved items from Bavaria.
A printed commentary on the nativity included a quote from St. Francis of Assisi: “Behold your God, a poor and helpless child, the ox and ass beside Him. Your God is of your flesh. He lives in your nearest neighbors, in everyone, for all are your brothers and sisters.” It was an appropriate message for the mixture of humanity coming and going on the tour of the historic churches of Frederick.
Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church housed Confederate prisoners during the Civil War. It has a magnificent building with the floor plan of a Latin cross. The ceiling has a painting of Christ’s ascension. High in a rear balcony a soloist sang Christmas carols.
We did not visit all the churches. It would be a challenge even in the five hours of the tour. But we saw enough to realize the brilliance of the event. It was a joining together of diverse congregations to welcome neighbors, near and far, “all brothers and sisters,” by using the best that they had to offer: their heritage, their architecture, their music and their hospitality. It probably brought more people into most of those churches on that one evening than might come throughout a year’s worth of Sundays.
How could they feed thousands of Christmas visitors? There were evidences of homemade cookies and sweets, but there also were acknowledgements of local businesses which contributed hot beverages. The tour was seen as a tourism draw and some media sources helped provide the printed brochures. The 2011 tour is set for December 26.
I promised a challenge. Virginia has villages, towns and cities which could do likewise. (And maybe they do and we don’t know about them.) There is time to get started. A Christmas Tour in your town could happen in 11 months. Think of the possibilities!
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.