Orange is one of the prettiest small towns in Central Virginia; and in the middle of its commercial district, there is a red-brick Gothic building which houses the Baptists. With its tower the Orange Baptist Church sits like a sentinel,…
A church on the move
The church began in 1876, when some Baptists started meeting in a private home. They had been members of the nearby Sandy Creek Church and other Baptist churches. Later, the house was moved to another location and used as a…
Saving the General Association!
“You are acquainted with how its missionaries are suffering and its wants disregarded. [The General Association] must be more liberally supported than it has been for a year or two past. For it to go down would seriously injure our…
Down by the Old Mill Stream
Virginia Singleton Darnell has done it all in the First Baptist Church of Richmond. She has broken the gender barrier time and again. She was in the “second batch” of women to be elected as deacons about 1979; and in…
Finding a home
Shiloh Baptist Church, along the King's Highway in King George County, Va., has been home for many people in the course of its 150 years. It was created to give people a home during one of the great divisions among…
Now it can be told
About 100 years have passed since the following story took place. Maybe now it can be told! “Pastor John” had been at the country church for seven years and had earned the respect of the congregation. At age 65, he…
In the schoolhouse or the church house?
Fifty years ago most children received some exposure to the Judeo-Christian faith tradition in the tax-supported public schools. My faintest recollection is that my school had opening exercises with the pledge to the flag, some Bible verses and a prayer….
South of the border
Several Virginia Baptists — including this columnist — found their way south of the border to Mexico City for the recent gathering of the Baptist World Alliance. In a sense, I once again was following in the footsteps of my…
At the front door
Hazel Mallory died Saturday, June 24, from cancer. Her funeral was on Wednesday, June 28, at Hatcher Memorial Baptist Church in Richmond. For 31 years Hazel Mallory sat at the front door of Virginia Baptist life. As the administrative assistant…
Surprise ending!
Virginia Sanders sleeps beneath a painting of her long-time home on Sabot Street in Richmond's West End. The painting and plenty of memories remind her of the days when she was a busy homemaker with a professor-husband and four active…
A long friendship
The days around Memorial Day weekend 2006 will long be remembered as the visit to Virginia by a delegation of some 25 Chinese from the China Christian Council, who were hosted by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. For several years…
A vision fulfilled
Last week this column told the background of assemblies in Virginia Baptist history. The column managed to get as far as the critical meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia in November 1950 when “Eagle's Eyrie”—a large expanse of…