Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 18, 1991 TAG: 9104190398
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A parade of banners, one for each of the 71 congregations, and a drama based on the founding of the church in Botetourt County in 1841 will be highlights of the association's annual spring meeting. It will be at Oakland Church.
A 353-page history of the churches has been compiled by Nell C. Thompson of the Mill Creek congregation.
Printed in Roanoke, the paperback has historical sketches of all the association churches. The book will be for sale for $7.50 at the meeting next week. It's called " 'ssociation Saga."
Thompson is historian for the regional Baptist organization and author of two other histories.
Planning for the sesquicentennial began four years ago, according to Ruby F. Vest, coordinator of the event. A highway marker has been placed on U.S. 220 north of Fincastle to mark the founding of the association nearby.
The actual service that formed the Roanoke Valley Association from the Strawberry Association of Bedford County took place in the Zion Hill Church near the present building bearing that name.
The Tuesday night drama, staged by members of several churches, is based on old records kept, often sketchily, as Thompson remarks.
On Aug. 7, the date nearest the actual founding service, a tent meeting and outdoor social are planned at Zion Hill. The evening program will include period clothing, lanterns, 19th-century transportation and a talk by Fred Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society in Richmond.
In October the Roanoke Historical Society's museum in Center in the Square will display early Baptist artifacts, Vest said.
The climax of the 150th anniversary events will be the annual fall meeting of the association Oct. 22. It will be at the Salem Civic Center and will include a heritage fair, evening banquet and special music from choir, orchestra and handbells.
The valley association history supporters will have a part in the annual meeting of Virginia Baptists Nov. 12-13, also at the Salem Civic Center.
Mill Creek Church north of Troutville is the oldest in the association with unbroken services since 1804. Layman Memorial Church, serving the Read Mountain area of Northeast Roanoke County, is the latest to be established. It was founded in 1984.
Since 1974 the work of the association has been coordinated by a full-time executive secretary. Currently this is the Rev. Kirkland Lashley whose office is on Plantation Road Northeast.
by CNB