Baptist Month is an expression of believers coming together to celebrate the wonders of the Lord's work in their lives, and the demonstration of his faithfulness toward his people, according to Bahamas Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention Executive Secretary Dr. Glendon E. Rolle. As the convention approaches the halfway mark in its October observance month, Baptists are gearing up to showcase their pride in the always anticipated Baptist Day Recognition Parade.
The Baptist Recognition Day Parade will be held in honor of Rev. Dr. Philip Rahming, pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church and author of the national song - God Bless Our Sunny Clime.
"The significance of the Baptist celebration is so that every facet of believers can demonstrate their love for Christ so that those around us can see what God is doing," said Rolle. "It's manifested in the testimonies and also the demonstration of his power in the lives of those around us, and is based on their faith and their practices and through their prayer and the study of God's word. It's the word becoming live in the lives of believers."
Mildred B. Donaldson, Reverend E. C. Grant, and Rev. Alexander Black, along with Bessie Colebrook are the visionaries of Baptist Day, which speaks to the development of Baptists in The Bahamas.
Baptist Day is a celebration of Baptists. Every Baptist is challenged to give of his best in safeguarding The Bahamas for the glory of God.
With Dr. Philip B. McPhee at the helm as president, Baptists are celebrating their 65th Recognition Month and 87 years as a formative Baptist denomination in The Bahamas.
"Baptists stand for the righteousness of God. We all believe that we have sinned and the redemptive power of God is able to sustain us and keep us," said Rolle, ahead of Sunday's parade which starts at Town Centre Mall and ending at the William Thompson Auditorium.
"Our demonstrations through the uniqueness of the way we worship and proclaim the gospel, transcends to all walks of life.
Baptists stand for the righteousness of God. We all believe that we have sinned and the redemptive power of God is able to sustain us and keep us."
The theme for this year's BBMEC recognition month is "The King's Business Requires Haste".
The parade will be followed by a Baptist honorees banquet on Friday, October 20, at the William Thompson Auditorium on Jean Street; and the Brown, Cooper, Colebrook lecture series on Thursday, October 26 at New Lively Hope Baptist Church on Jerome Avenue.
Early days
The first session of The Bahamas National Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention was held at St. John's Native Baptist Cathedral, New Providence, in May 1937. Reverend Alfred C. Symonette served as the first president. He and Rev. Enoch Backford are credited with being the principal movers in organizing the Convention into the hub of the Baptist work in The Bahamas.
Missionaries from the Baptist Missionary Society in London arrived in The Bahamas in 1855 and found the Baptist work in progress. Baptist history reports say the missionaries could not overtake the work of the native Baptists successfully and their mission fizzled out by 1892.
After 30 years, the Mission of the Southern Baptist Convention withdrew from The Bahamas in the late 1970s.
The history of Baptists in The Bahamas is the accounting of political, religious and social development of Bahamians who came to The Bahamas originally as slaves and freed slaves – predominantly Black of African heritage, dispossessed and tempered by the institutions of slavery and colonialism.
Through the years, Baptists in The Bahamas held on to a life-sustaining spirituality that converted their "toils of the road" into soul-stirring worship songs and their "night seasons" into testimonies of hope and praise. The fellowship and worship of Baptists, they say offered the Black Bahamian, personal and reciprocal experience with real identity and self-worth, and Black Bahamians flocked to the Baptist Church, making it the largest and nearly 100 percent Black denomination in The Bahamas.
Baptists highlight several doctrinal distinctives. They accept the Bible as the word of God and as the final authority for faith and practice. They interpret baptism to mean voluntary and full immersion of a believer in Christ. For Baptists, the Lord's Supper is an ordinance in symbolism - a reminder of what Jesus Christ did for believers. Baptists uphold salvation to be a divine act of grace through Jesus Christ.
Baptist history says the faith spread from the area around the Mediterranean Sea through Europe into Great Britain and arrived in North America circa 1638, when the first Baptist church was started in Rhode Island, America. The first black church was established at Silver Bluff, South Carolina in the mid 1770's and the influence of this "mother church" landed in The Bahamas, with the influx of Loyalists and their slaves in the mid 1780s.
Sambo Scriven and Prince William, two pioneer Black preachers were first introduced to The Bahamas in 1785 as runaway slaves with bounty on their heads. Scriven became the pastor of Anabaptist society, now known as Bethel Baptist Church. William succeeded him in 1825.
William moved away after three years with the majority of the congregation and established the St. John's Native Baptist Cathedral. The sanctuary on Meeting Street, was dedicated in March 1855.
Early Baptist preachers were slaves and freed slaves; they were illiterate, poor and most were lacking in formal education but they shared what they received by the inspiration of the Holy Spirits their wise influence was profound and wide-spread.
Primarily, Baptists responded to the general imperative to reform the oppressive and pernicious social system of the day that mitigated against the liberty and well beings of Blacks. It was a bitter and dehumanizing experience staged against the intricate tapestry of economic oppression, racial discrimination, inadequate general education, poverty and the apathetic indignation of a white minority rule government.
Baptists championed the cause for education.
The BBMEC is committed to providing quality education at all levels, and has established and operated educational institutions and programs of learning, at all levels for the benefit for all Bahamians. Most Baptists churches sponsor and operate a pre-school.
Spirituality
Baptist spirituality transforms; the "toils of the road" and the lengthy "night seasons" are converted into songs that strengthen and into hallelujah testimonies of praise that make the burden seem lighter and bearable.
Baptists endured the prejudice and ridicule of the established church. And "dissenters" who were ministers and religious instructors, had to be licensed annually by the governor.
They were not allowed to officiate weddings or burials in the public cemeteries, but did not flinch in the struggle for religious freedom, social justice and against political oppression in The Bahamas.
The history says reforms were hard won.
William, Rev. Thomas Rumer of St. John's Cathedral and later, the Rev. Dr. Harcourt W. Brown, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. R. E. Cooper, pastor of Mission Baptist Church and Rev. Dr. A. Samuel Colebrook, pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church, Blue Hill Road were all activists for human rights and equality. And that Baptists were in the forefront of the struggle for Majority Rule. They also played leading roles in the peaceful attainment of the political independence of The Bahamas.
In the height of the liberation struggle, Brown, Cooper and Colebrook they say, communicated the word of God with relevance and purpose for the oppressor and the oppressed. They were the first local preachers educated and prepared for ministry, at a seminary in the United States. They matriculated at the American Baptist Seminary during a period when the southern states were entrenched in segregation and their experiences helped to prepare them to lead the church out of oppression.
The trio were unique in their delivery, temperament, and preaching style.
Colebrook was known to be charismatic, demonstrative and cutting edge.
Cooper was intellectual and academic with a preaching/teaching style.
Brown was an orator and a philosopher.
Dr. W.G. McPhee, pastor of Calvary Baptist Cathedral displayed penetrating theological insights. He proclaimed thunderously the truth of God for a developing nation.
The Women
Rev. Ethel Hunter, the first president of the Women's Auxiliary of the Baptist Convention, was a devoted female evangelist from St. Peter's Native Baptist Church, Port Howe, Cat Island. Her shrill voice was said to convey the persuasive message of God's reconciliation by grace. During her presidency she was welcomed into the pulpits of New Providence churches, at a time when women were not encouraged and received as preachers.
Bahamian Baptist women are also recognized as outstanding participants and contributors to the nation building process in The Bahamas having worked in the church and in women's ministry. Baptist annals say the struggle for nationhood could not have been successfully endured without Baptist women.
According to Baptist history, in 1934, a delegation was appointed by the National Baptist Convention, USA Inc., to visit The Bahamas to report on the church. The National Baptist Convention was impressed. As a result, the delegation was enlarged, and requested to return to The Bahamas, and assist with organize a Bahamas Convention, and a Women's Auxiliary Convention. A call was issued to the Baptist women of The Bahamas to attend a meeting at the Metropolitan Baptist Church at which Rev. Jerome Hutchinson was pastor on May 25, 1935. It was at that meeting that a motion was made that the Women's Convention, auxiliary to The Bahamas Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention be organized. Ethel Hunter was elected president.
The work in The Bahamas was reportedly placed under the care of the Home Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc.
The two associations of churches that made up the Convention were St. John's Native Baptist and Bahamas Baptist Union, with two churches - Metropolitan Baptist and St. Paul's Baptist, Bias Street. One year there was a dissension among the brethren, and no Convention was held. The women, however, never gave up nor slackened their pace. When the men saw the determination of the women, they patched up their differences.
Rev. Lavania Stewart assumed the presidency in 1961, following the death of Hunter. Stewart was followed by Rev. Harriet McDonald.
Dame Doris Johnson. Rev. Dr. Marina Princess Sands, Rev. Dolly King, and Rev. Gloria Ferguson followed in succession as leaders of the Baptist Women's Convention.
Rev. Dr. Sabrina Pinder now presides.
Rev. Dr. William Thompson, CMG, followed the late Rev. Dr. Charles Saunders as president of the BBMEC, and was simultaneously president of the Bahamas Christian Council.
Baptists say their work is not complete as the struggle is not over. And that although they pause for characteristic celebration praise, there is urgency for fresh strategies and resources.
At President Thompson's first demission from office, Rev. Anthony Carrol, founding pastor of the Antioch Baptist Church succeeded him.
The late Rev. Dr. Lloyd Smith is the last elected president of the Convention, and will be remembered for his overcoming spirit, having faced challenges of national proportions during his leadership.
Under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Philip McPhee and Rev. Dr. Sabrina Pinder, they celebrate 86 years as a Convention.
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