THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601190267
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines
WITH THE MELANCHOLY wail of a train whistle, Centerville Baptist Church members will take a trip today into the past.
Their past.
They'll celebrate their church's 124-year history, and the rich heritage of Baptists throughout Virginia and the nation.
Some of the event's participants will dress in the garb of their Baptist forebears.
An expert in Virginia Baptist history will appear at an 11 a.m. service, costumed as Dr. William E. Hatcher, who was a prominent turn-of-the-century pastor and speaker on the Baptist circuit along the Eastern Seaboard.
``Hatcher'' will be introduced by the blowing of a whistle that sounds like a train's signal, symbolizing the train that once ran on a nearby track, transporting frequent travelers such as circuit preachers between Virginia and North Carolina.
At a 2 p.m. service, William L. Lumpkin, a retired Baptist minister in Norfolk and author of history books on several area churches, will discuss the history of Virginia's Baptist faithful.
The public is invited to all the festivities except a catered lunch between the services, for which prior reservations were required.
Elizabeth B. Hanbury, 75, a member of Centerville Baptist since 1954 and a descendant of one of the charter church members, said the purpose of the all-day heritage celebration is to remind folks of their deep spiritual roots. And of Centerville's longevity in the community.
``We've been a church family for a long time,'' said Hanbury, coordinator of the event.
``I think it's important for young people to understand our heritage. We all have to know where we come from in order to know where we're going.''
Life was difficult for the first Baptists who settled in the British colony of Virginia, beginning in the 1680s.
People who did not worship in the Church of England were considered dissenters. They were persecuted, fined and jailed, said Fred J. Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society in Richmond, who will portray the late pastor Hatcher at Sunday's event. They were taxed to support the Anglican church, even though they didn't attend.
``It required a great deal of conviction and commitment in order to stand for what they believed,'' Anderson said.
As the numbers of Baptists grew, so did the incidences of persecution. Between the 1760s and 1770s, Anderson said, nearly 40 Virginia Baptists were jailed or otherwise tormented, such as with horse whippings or interruptions of their church services.
Once, in an area that is now Churchland, two pastors were pulled from their pulpits and dragged to a nearby pond, where the attackers tried to drown them in a mockery of the victims' belief in baptism, Anderson said.
Naturally, Anderson said, Baptists became some of the fledgling country's most ardent advocates of religious freedom for all people.
``The Baptists of Virginia wanted full religious freedom for all people to be able to worship as they pleased,'' he said. ``They did not seek to become the favorite religion.''
Baptists petitioned the government to abolish the requirement for allegiance to the state church.
Anderson said that Thomas Jefferson was influenced by some of his Baptist neighbors to sponsor a bill for religious freedom in Virginia. James Madison is said to have been persuaded by a powerful Baptist minister to include the idea of separation of church and state in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.
``I think that helped to define who Baptists were, that they were a people who were strong for individual freedom of expression, and for the separation of church and state,'' Anderson said.
``We live in a time in which there are some who would seek to have a favored status as a church or religious group, and who would seek to unduly influence the government,'' he said, ``whereas the early Baptists thought that the church and state would be dissolved and never again unite, and that every person would be free to exercise their own conscience in the matters of religion.''
Centerville Baptist Church is by no means the oldest church in the area.
By the time Baptists in a rural community north of Hickory decided they wanted their own church, religious freedom was already a well established principle in Virginia.
Oak Grove Baptist Church, formerly Pungo Baptist, was established in 1762.
Churches began to proliferate, though, because transportation was so difficult.
It was too hard for people who had to rely on horse-drawn buggies to travel across the unpaved rural roads that led to the only area church, Pleasant Grove Baptist, south of Hickory.
The Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal was a critical transportation route at the time; so the lumber for Centerville Baptist's first sanctuary was floated up the canal to the site that's now still occupied by the church.
The lumber even went through a ritual usually reserved for church members - it was baptized when the barge carrying it sank. But the materials were salvaged and the church was built at a cost of $1,344, according to a 1947 commemorative issue of the ``Religious Herald,'' a Virginia Baptist journal.
The building was dedicated on Jan. 7, 1872. There were a little more than 30 charter members.
The white-clapboard structure still stands. When Centerville Baptist built a new church earlier this century, the old building was sold to another congregation and moved to a site on Mt. Pleasant Road across from Bergey's Dairy Farm Inc.
Centerville's second sanctuary, a brick building fronted by large columns, was used until the present sanctuary was constructed and dedicated in 1976.
Centerville now occupies a sprawling 11 acres, with a spacious education/office building, an outdoor recreation area and a large parking lot flanking the two sanctuaries. The church runs a preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds that organizers say is the oldest of its kind in the area.
Bulletin boards, painstakingly erected with pictures dating back to the earliest days of the church, show Centerville Baptist members' pride in their heritage and their faith.
The church ``is the foundation for the qualities in the home,'' said Bettie F. Grissom, 60, a lifelong member whose ancestors were among the church's founders. ``It's the center of life.''
Perhaps, organizers of the heritage celebration say, such reflection will help everyone remember that.
``If we could get back to that. . . if families could get back, that was the backbone of the family,'' Grissom said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including the cover, by MORT FRYMAN
On the Cover
The original Centerville Baptist Church was built and occupied in
1872. There were a little more than 30 charter members. The
white-clapboard structure, still standing, was photographed by Mort
Fryman.
The new Centerville Baptist Church at 908 Centerville Turnpike is
the third house of worship to serve the congregation.
The church was featured in a 1947 issue of the Religious Herald.
Preschool director Bettie F. Grissom, far left, and teacher Barbara
Tye look over the church's display boards.
Elizabeth B. Hanbury, a member of Centerville Baptist since 1954 and
a descendant of one of the charter members, said the celebration is
to remind folks of their deep spiritual roots.
by CNB