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Older than Oregon: First Baptist Church celebrates 155 Years
It was 1855 in the Oregon territory. The Pacific Railroad was surveying potential routes. The territorial government signed treaties with the Warm Springs, Umatilla and Nez Pearce tribes in which they ceded traditional lands but received guarantees concerning reserved lands. Less trusting Rogue River and Yakima tribes declared war on the white settlers. Within two years, Oregon would respond to the turmoil that was leading to a bitter national war by writing a constitution excluding African Americans, would elect its first slate of state officials, and would be admitted into the union on February 14, 1859 as the first and last “whites only state”. In 1860, the first federal census for the state of Oregon counted 52,465 residents, less than one tenth of the current population of the city of Portland alone. The First Baptist Church had already been in existence for five years.
On May 6, 1855, a small group of Baptist believers met in the County Courtroom on the second floor of Robinson’s Building at Front and Salmon Streets to constitute the First Baptist Church, Oregon Territory. On July 4 they marched in the Independence Day Parade in Portland behind a blue silk banner. By 1870, the congregation had erected a handsome brick building at Fourth and Salmon. It had taken eight years of struggle, and had cost $12,500 to complete. Within a few years, members would be seeking a sanctuary from the turmoil of downtown Portland, and would begin looking for a site in the residential blocks on the west side of town. The monumental building that stands today at 11th and Taylor, erected for the princely sum of $86,000, and dedicated on July 8, 1894, is the result of that quest. (How wonderfully ironic that we define our ministry today in terms of making Christ present “in the heart of the city”.)
The new building was called “White Temple”, referring to its white sandstone exterior, darkened today by decades of urban emissions. It is impossible to know, but I imagine that those proud members were entirely innocent of any racist connotations in the name. But what we can know with assurance is that those dear fore parents of ours could not have imagined today’s Portland, with its thousands of transplants hailing from Boston to California, and its riotous salad bowl of Russians, Romanians, Vietnamese, Mexicans, Cambodians, Chinese, Burmese and many more seeking the American dream. Perhaps they could have imagined the widespread secularism in today’s Portland, with its mixture of pubs and marijuana cafes and music venues and “gentleman’s clubs”, for nineteenth century Portland was itself a hard living and sometimes disorderly place.
But for all this, our basic human dilemma and our God-given potential have not changed. We are made in God’s own image and likeness, to be God’s collaborators in the care of creation. Yet we are distorted and degraded by the sin that is within us and around us. And God’s response has not changed: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16). Methods and ministries change; the makeup of our congregation has changed with the passing decades; but our core beliefs and our mission have not changed. If the Apostle Paul could be translated here from the philosophical salons of Athens or the forecourts of the great temple of Diana in Ephesus, he would recognize that he was surrounded here also by multitudes seeking Good News. We pray that First Baptist Church will continue to represent and proclaim that Good News as long as God so wills.
Come and celebrate 155 years of ministry with us on Sunday, May 16, 2010. Worship will be at 9 & 11, with a wonderful family meal to follow. |
