Ruth and Maynard Guill were twentysomethings when the folks at their church, Weatherford Memorial of Richmond, began helping a young married couple studying at Virginia Union University. A.O. Adeyemi (pronounced Ah-de-ah-me) was 38 when he left his native Nigeria for…
HERITAGE: Sweet reunions
Ruth and Maynard Guill were twentysomethings when the folks at their church, Weatherford Memorial of Richmond, began helping a young married couple studying at Virginia Union University. A.O. Adeyemi (pronounced Ah-de-ah-me) was 38 when he left his native Nigeria for…
HERITAGE: Keep me
‘Keep me a hundred years, and you shall find a use for me.” In 1885 William H. Whitsitt penned this line on the inside front cover of his secret diary. The diarist painstakingly and neatly recorded his activities and his…
Celebrate Baptists’ 400th anniversary with day trips across Virginia
European Baptists are throwing a huge party in July in Amsterdam to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the church founded by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys in 1609. If Amsterdam is not on your summer itinerary, there are places closer…
HERITAGE: Time travel
Jim Slatton had a catchy title in mind for his biography of William Heth Whitsitt. He wanted to call it An Inconvenient Truth, but Al Gore coined it first for his book. It would have been apropos. After all, in…
HERITAGE: A time of beginnings
It was late in the afternoon of March 3, 1989, in the First Baptist Church of Greenville, S.C. Elmer West, long prominent in Baptist life, was there, along with others attending the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Alliance (now…
HERITAGE: Bright eyes
Everybody loves Gracie Kirkpatrick, the vivacious, bubbly, compassionate community missionary of the Richmond Baptist Association. For 31 summers she has directed the association’s unique ministry known as Camp Alkulana. When the camp opens this summer for its 94th season, Gracie…
Going home
Last month this columnist spoke in a “Virginia Baptist” church in a very far corner of Southwest Virginia. Actually, my speaking engagement was at First Baptist Church of Dalton, as in Dalton, Georgia. In 2006 the Georgia church joined the…
HERITAGE: Going home
Last month this columnist spoke in a “Virginia Baptist” church in a very far corner of Southwest Virginia. Actually, my speaking engagement was at First Baptist Church of Dalton, as in Dalton, Georgia. In 2006 the Georgia church joined the…
HERITAGE: A man who cared
Bill Jenkins once was described as “firm, fair and faithful.” Roland Byrd, the long-time Baptist campus minister at Virginia Tech, who was describing his former boss and mentor in ministry, said, “Bill encouraged us and helped us to do what…
An uncertain past for one of the world’s major denominations
Baptists have no founder. They have no certain month, day and year of beginning. It is risky at best to find the earliest tender roots of a people who have become one of the world's major religious denominations. Across the…
HERITAGE: Getting connected
Ann Fitzgerald Brown's family was in the telephone business. Her great-grandfather put in a telephone from his house to his store and a telephone company was started. It was all about people getting connected with one another in the rural…