History
In 1895 the London Baptist Association (LBA) promoted services in East Ham, then a fast-growing dormitory suburb. A temporary iron building at the corner of Katherine Road and Victoria Avenue housed the first congregation. R. Sloven became the first minister from 1896 to 1908.
In 1901 the congregation moved to a new building in Plashet Grove, designed by Edgar Stones, [2] with a 1000-seater sanctuary, surrounded by halls and rooms. By 1903, membership was 972, one of the strongest in the then East Ham Borough. In 1908, Charles Howe led a team of East Ham members to start Bonny Downs Baptist Church [1] situated in the southern part of East Ham. He stayed there for 53 years.
Worship, preaching, programmes and activities continued under the leadership of F. Williams from 1909–1919 and then returning from 1925–1929 after the ministry of F. C. Buck (1919–1924). Church attendance weakened after World War I (1914–1918), World War II (1939–1945) and population movement.
World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
The slow decline of the 1930s accelerated during the 1939–1945 war and continued inexorably through a succession of ministers and then lay pastors. Membership was 228 in 1941 and only 52 in 1951.
Modern congregation
Humphrey Vellacott came in 1967. His first morning congregation was 6, and 14 people in the evening. He left 100 members, a morning congregation of 150–200, evening 70–80, and a prayer and bible study of 50–60 of 'converts or restored back sliders' and a reshaped building and a team of young ministers working in East London Baptist churches.
With the surrounding population changing fast through immigration, particularly from Africa and Asia, the congregation became multi-racial but continued to record a steady 100 membership from the 1980s into the 2000s.
Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both categories. At about 30.3 million km2 including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere.
Asia is Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres. It shares the continental landmass of Eurasia with the continent of Europe and the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. Asia covers an area of 44,579,000 square kilometres (17,212,000 sq mi), about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and population, but also dense and large settlements, as well as vast barely populated regions. Its 4.5 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population.
Roy Scarsbrook, joined and followed Humphrey Vellacott in September 1983 staying until August 2000, emphasising evangelism and eventually becoming one of a group of supported overseas missionaries, as he went to Poland.
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, covering an area of 312,696 square kilometres (120,733 sq mi), and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of approximately 38.5 million people, Poland is the sixth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.
Tony Watts, a New Zealander, came initially for a six-month interim pastorate but stayed to 2008, and faced a transient situation within a multi-faith, multi-racial environment.
After a year without a minister, the current minister Jeremiah Dawood took up this post in May 2009. The mission statement of the church is: "East Ham Baptist Church is a multicultural, mission-focussed church. We seek to build up the body of Christ by encouraging and equipping the members to find and exercise their gifts, and through this to touch the community both at home and abroad with the love of Christ."
A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, identifying the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation. It may include a short statement of such fundamental matters as the organization's values or philosophies, a business's main competitive advantages, or a desired future state—the "vision".
Baptists are Christians distinguished by baptizing professing believers only, and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the tenets of soul competency/liberty, salvation through faith alone, scripture alone as the rule of faith and practice, and the autonomy of the local congregation. Baptists generally recognize two ordinances: baptism and the Lord's supper.
Congregationalist polity, or congregational polity, often known as congregationalism, is a system of ecclesiastical polity in which every local church congregation is independent, ecclesiastically sovereign, or "autonomous". Its first articulation in writing is the Cambridge Platform of 1648 in New England. Among those major Protestant Christian traditions that employ congregationalism are those Congregational churches known by the Congregationalist name that descended from the Independent Reformed wing of the Anglo-American Puritan movement of the 17th century, Quakerism, the Baptist churches, and most of the groups brought about by the Anabaptist movement in Germany that migrated to the US in the late 18th century, as well as the Congregational Methodist Church. More recent generations have witnessed also a growing number of non-denominational churches, which are most often congregationalist in their governance.
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination with origins in the Schwarzenau Brethren that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germany, as a melding of the Radical Pietist and Anabaptist movements. The denomination holds the New Testament as its only creed. Historically, the church has taken a strong stance for nonresistance or pacifism—it is one of the three historic peace churches, alongside the Mennonites and Quakers. Distinctive practices include believers baptism by trine immersion; a threefold love feast consisting of feet washing, a fellowship meal, and communion; anointing for healing; and the holy kiss.
The Restoration Movement is a Christian movement that began on the United States frontier during the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840) of the early 19th century. The pioneers of this movement were seeking to reform the church from within and sought "the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the church of the New Testament." Especially since the mid-20th century, members of these churches do not identify as Protestant but simply as Christian.
The Schwarzenau Brethren, the German Baptist Brethren, Dunkers, Dunkards, Tunkers, or simply the German Baptists, are an Anabaptist group that originally dissented from several Lutheran and Reformed churches that were officially established in some German-speaking states in western and southwestern parts of the Holy Roman Empire as a result of the Radical Pietist ferment of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
The Metropolitan Tabernacle is a large Independent Reformed Baptist church in the Elephant and Castle in London. It was the largest non-conformist church of its day in 1861. The Tabernacle Fellowship have been worshipping together since 1650. Its first pastor was William Rider; other notable pastors and preachers include Benjamin Keach, Dr. John Gill, Dr. John Rippon, and C. H. Spurgeon. The Tabernacle still worships and holds to its Biblical foundations and principles under its present pastor, Dr. Peter Masters.
Bellevue Baptist Church is a large Southern Baptist megachurch in the Cordova area of Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Bellevue is the largest church in Memphis and is one of the leading churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. Bellevue's goals are to "Love God, Love People, Share Jesus, and Make Disciples." The church's head pastor has been Steve Gaines since 2005.
Bethlehem Baptist Church, is an evangelical Christian baptist megachurch and a multi-site church headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in 1871. Dr. E. Glenn Wagner, Chancellor of Oxford Graduate School, has referred to it as a "flagship congregation of the Baptist General Conference", and C. Douglas Weaver, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of Religion at Baylor University, has called "the best-known congregation in the Baptist General Conference at the turn of the 21st century".
East Ham was a local government district in the far south west of Essex from 1878 to 1965. It extended from Wanstead Flats in the north to the River Thames in the south and from Green Street in the west to Barking Creek in the east. It was part of the London postal district and Metropolitan Police District.
St. John's Baptist Church is a historic church in Miami, Florida. It is located at 1328 Northwest 3rd Avenue. On April 17, 1992, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
William Garrett Lewis (1821–1885) was a Baptist preacher and pastor of Westbourne Grove Church in Bayswater, London for 33 years. He was an apologist author of two books, Westbourne Grove Sermons and The Trades and Industrial Occupations of the Bible, published by the Religious Tract Society.
The Charlotte Chapel, also known by its previous name, St George's West Church, is a historic church building located in Shandwick Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. It belongs to an Independent Baptist congregation, and was originally a parish church of the Church of Scotland.
First Baptist Congregational Church is a United Church of Christ and Baptist congregation currently located at 60 N. Ashland Blvd. in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The church building is an Illinois Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was designed by architect Gurdon P. Randall for the Union Park Congregational Church, founded in 1860, and was built between 1869 and 1871. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Mayor's Office, City Council, and General Relief Committee of Chicago were temporarily headquartered in the church. In 1910, the building of nearby First Congregational Church burnt down. Union Park Congregational then merged with First Congregational to form (New) First Congregational Church. Two other congregations would eventually merged into the new First Congregational Church: Leavitt Street Congregational Church in 1917 and Bethany Congregational Church in the 1920s.
The First Baptist Church in the City of New York is a Christian congregation based in a sanctuary built in 1890-93 at the intersection of Broadway and West 79th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City. The church is a conservative, independent, evangelistic, mission-oriented church in fellowship with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Wake Forest Baptist Church is located on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The church was organized in 1956 when Wake Forest College moved from Wake Forest, NC, to Winston-Salem, perpetuating a 125-year-old tradition of having a Baptist church at the center of the campus.
Jubilee International Church was established in 1992 with just 7 members in Clapham, London SW4. They then purchased and modernised a former 1935 Baptist church building and moved in 2006 to the Chinbrook and the former Chinbrook Meadows areas of Grove Park. The church was part of the Assemblies of God in Great Britain, a leading Pentecostal denomination worldwide. The church had a number of branches in the UK and in several nations worldwide.
Grangewoood Independent School is an independent primary school situated in Chester Road, Forest Gate, in the London Borough of Newham, United Kingdom. It is a member of the Independent Schools Association and was last inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate in May 2016. The school provides Christian education for boys and girls aged 2–11 years.
First Baptist Dallas is a Southern Baptist megachurch located in Dallas, Texas. It was established in 1868 and, as of 2016, has a congregation of about 12,000. The church, considered influential among evangelical Christians in the United States, also owns and operates a school, several radio stations, and Dallas Life, a mission for the homeless on the southern edge of Downtown Dallas. The current pastor is Robert Jeffress.
Reverend Robert Guy Ramsay (1895–1976) was a twentieth-century Scottish Baptist minister and author, most closely associated with Hillhead Baptist Church, Glasgow, Scotland. Rev Guy Ramsay was President of the Baptist Union of Scotland during the late 1940s.
