Telling Baptist stories: 400 years later

Baptist History and Heritage, Wntr, 2009 by Pamela R. Durso

For the past few years, the Baptist History and Heritage Society has been in an informational mode--seeking to get the word out about the 400th anniversary of Baptist beginnings. We have encouraged churches to celebrate and have promoted ways in which all Baptists can observe this significant year. Now 2009 has finally arrived, and a good many Baptist churches have already had a Baptist Heritage Sunday; some have had parties with cupcakes and candles; and some have made use of the bulletin inserts that have been distributed by the Society and Mercer University's Center for Baptist Studies.

The Society, with this first issue of the journal in 2009, now moves into an educational mode with regard to Baptist origins and the work of early Baptists. Included in this issue are five articles about the earliest Baptists. Two of the articles feature primary documents that have not previously been easily accessible. Kirsten Timmer has provided an English translation of four letters written between 1610 and 1612 concerning John Smyth's attempt to gain recognition by the Mennonites, and Keith Durso has included an account by John Griffith of his 1683 court appearance in the Old Bailey Courthouse near London. Three other articles, dealing with Thomas Helwys, Hanserd Knollys, and William Kiffin, offer insight into the lives and leadership of early Baptists. Taken together, these five articles remind us of the diversity of thought and experience of those early Baptists.

Reading these articles also reminds us that we as Baptists still have so many stories to explore and to share with one another. One of my personal favorites is the story of the founding of Broadmead Baptist Church.

In 1640, five people began meeting on Sunday afternoons and decided that they could no longer in good conscience hear readings from the Book of Common Prayer. The five covenanted together to continue to attend the Church of England but to enter the worship service only after the prayers had already been read and after Matthew Hazzard, the vicar of their church, St. Ewins, had begun to preach. (1) Ironically, this group met at Hazzard's home, and its leader was his wife, Dorothy. Thus, "the first dissenting church in Bristol began in the parsonage of the Anglican vicar of St. Ewins." (2)

The group of five eventually formed the Broadmead Baptist Church, and according to Edward Bean Underhill, Dorothy Hazzard was like "a he-goat before the flock" and "like Deborah she arose, with strength of holy resolution in her soul from God, even a mother in Israel." (3) Within two years, the church had 160 members.

The much imprisoned and outspoken Baptist preacher, Thomas Hardcastle, was another leader of this church. By his death in 1678, Hardcastle had spent forty-one months of his life in prison for preaching the gospel and for promoting Baptist teachings. Reading the stories of Hazzard and Hardcastle reminds us in this year of celebration that many of those early Baptists made sacrifices and endured persecution in order to be faithful to their understanding of the teachings of the New Testament.

Telling the stories of these early Baptists helps us as we move into an uncertain future. Four hundred years later, Baptists are living in a less denominationally-oriented, post-modern world, but learning and telling the stories of early Baptists provides focus and guidance as we begin our navigation of the next four hundred years of our history.

You may have noticed that this issue of the journal is a bit thinner than past issues. Given the economic realities of 2009, the Society board and staff have implemented a few money-saving policies, including cutting down this year's journal issues from 120 to 96 pages.

(1.) Edward Bean Underhill, ed., The Records of a Church of Christ, Meeting in Broadmead, Bristol, 1640-1685 (London: J. Haddon, 1847) 18.

(2.) Keith E. Durso, No Armor for the Back: Baptist Prison Writings, 1600-1700s (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, and Atlanta, GA: Baptist History and Heritage Society, 2007), 121.

(3.) Underhill, The Records of a Church of Christ, 10.

Pamela R. Durso

Editor