Calvary Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.)

Calvary Baptist Church is a diverse and historic Baptist church in the Penn Quarter neighborhood in Washington, D.C. affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Alliance of Baptists, and the District of Columbia Baptist Convention.^[1][2] Since 2003, Calvary's Senior Pastor is Rev. Amy Butler.

Mission and Congregation

Calvary focuses on its missions as an urban church in the heart of a great city. Its 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.

Recently, this commitment has manifested in the introduction of bilingual services.^[3][4] In the past, this commitment has taken many forms. In the 1983, Calvary founded the Calvary Women's Shelter^[5][6], 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 a summer camp, Camp Fraser^[7] 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^[8], a leading church of the Baptist Sunday School movement at the turn of the century^[5][9], and is unique in Baptist life for having simultaneously had the President of the American Baptists^[5], then pastor Clarence Cranford, and the Southern Baptists, former Democratic Member of Congress from Arkansas Brooks Hays, as members of the congregation.^[10][11] In 1955, it became the first white Baptist church in Washington, DC to admit an African-American member.^[12]

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

Senior Pastors

• Amy Butler, 2003–present^[13][14]
• Lynn Bergfalk, 1987-2000^[15]
• George W. Hill, 1971-1986^[16]
• Clarence Cranford, 1942-1971^[17]
• William S. Abernethy, 1921–1941
• Samuel Harrison Greene, 1880–1920
• Auguste Frank Mason, 1876–1879
• Joseph Parker, 1870–1875
• Thomas R. Howlett, 1863–1869
• Joseph Spencer Kennard, 1862

Historic members

As a church in Washington, it has had a number of high profile members^[8] including:

• Amos Kendall, the 8th United States Postmaster General and provided significant funding to found the church. The first floor of Calvary's sanctuary building is called Kendall Hall after Kendall.
• Charles Evans Hughes, the first President of the Northern Baptist Convention, the former Governor of New York, United States Secretary of State, and Chief Justice of the United States.
• President Warren G. Harding^[18] attended Calvary while President of the United States.
• William Shadrack Shallenberger, a former Republican Member of Congress from Pennsylvania and appointed Second Assistant Postmaster General by President William McKinley.^[8] Shallenberger Hall, Calvary's largest meeting room, is named after him. Shallenberger served as the Superintendent of the Sunday School and taught the Vaughn Class.^[5]
• Fred Schwengel, a former Republican Member of Congress from Iowa and the founding President of the United States Capitol Historical Society. Schwengel lost re-election in 1972 after opposing prayer in school.^[5]
• Brooks Hays, a former Democratic Member of Congress from Arkansas and President of the Southern Baptist Convention. Hays was defeated for re-election after attempting to mediate the Little Rock Integration Crisis^[19]
• George W. Hill was a former pastor of Calvary, a leader of the American Baptist Convention, often appeared in national newspapers and television, and was a national peace activist. His efforts led to the founding of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Notes

External links

• Official website