Calvary Baptist Church (Washington)

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Calvary Baptist Church is a diverse and historic Baptist church in the Penn Quarter neighborhood in Washington, DC affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Alliance of Baptists, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Calvary's Senior Pastor is Rev. Amy Butler. Calvary focuses on its missions as an urban church in the heart of a great city. It's vision statement is:

We are an ecumenical, multi-racial, multi-ethnic Christian body committed to living faithfully in the heart of this great city. To that end we strive to be welcoming, responsive, trusting, and prayerful in everything we do.

Calvary has long been involved in missions work. This has taken many forms. In the 70s, Calvary founded the Calvary Women's Shelter, now Calvary Women's Services, the first women's homeless shelter in Washington Metro area. Calvary's location near Chinatown has led to extensive outreach to the Chinese and Burmese communities. Calvary runs the Horizons Club, an after school program for at-risk high school students, and a summer camp, Camp Fraser^[1] near Great Falls, Virginia.

Calvary has played a significant role in Baptist life as the founding church of the Northern Baptist Convention (now the American Baptist Churches USA) in 1907, the leading church of the Baptist Sunday School movement at the turn of the century, and is unique in Baptist life for simultaneously having the Presidents of the American Baptists and the Southern Baptists as members of the congregation.

Calvary's sanctuary building was designed by the US-German architect Adolf Cluss, who also designed a number of other leading buildings in Washington.

Contents 1 Senior Pastors 2 Historic members 3 External links 4 References

[edit] Senior Pastors

• Amy Butler, 2003-present
• Lynn Bergfalk, 1987-2000^[2]
• George W. Hill, 1971-1986
• Clarence Cranford, 1942-1971
• William S. Abernethy, 1921-1941
• Samuel Harrison Greene, 1880-1920
• Auguste Frank Mason, 1876-1879
• Joesph Parker, 1870-1875
• Thomas R. Howlett, 1863-1869
• Joseph Spencer Kennard, 1862

[edit] Historic members

Calvary was founded in 1862 with the support of Amos Kendall, the 8th United States Postmaster General. Charles Evans Hughes, the former Governor of New York, United States Secretary of State, and Chief Justice of the United States, is another well-known member. President Warren G. Harding attended Calvary while President of the United States.

Calvary's leadership and membership has been involved in a number of activities in the nation's capital. For example, Pastor George W. Hill^[3] was involved in the founding of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

[edit] External links

• Calvary Baptist Church website
• District of Columbia Baptist Convention
• At Calvary: A History of the Frist 125 Years of Calvary Baptist Church, Washington, DC, 1862-1987
• Senior Pastor Amy Butler's blog
• Adolf Cluss, the architect of Calvary's sanctuary building
• Geothe Institute's history of Calvary Baptist Church
• Calvary Women's Shelter, originally founded and housed by Calvary in the 70s

[edit] References