Black, white Baptists worship together

For the first time in 138 years, two Baptist churches in Tampa, Fla., divided since the Civil War, worshiped together under the same church roof.

Members of the Beulah Baptist Institutional Church, which was founded by former slaves, came to First Baptist Church, Tampa, Feb. 9 for the worship service.

“All together, we must have had 700 people here,” said Jim Knight, pastor of First Baptist Church.

Founded in 1859 in Tampa, First Baptist was originally based in a wooden frame house where slave owners sat in pews on the bottom floor and their salves sat in the balcony.

When the Civil War ended in 1865, the freed slaves in the area were given financial aid by First Baptist Church to build a separate church. Thus, Beulah Baptist Institutional Church was founded in 1865 and was the first Baptist church for African-Americans in Tampa.

“I was going through some documents last year and I discovered that First Baptist is really the mother of Beulah Baptist, so to speak,” said W. James Favorite, pastor of Beulah Baptist.

During the Sunday evening joint service, both pastors “talked about the continuing need to share,” said Favorite.  “For example, both churches have evangelical programs and I’m sure that their program has good points that we could borrow and I know that our program has good things that First Baptist could borrow.”

After Favorite made the discovery last year, he informed Knight, who quickly suggested the reunion for February – Black History Month. Favorite agreed to bring members of his congregation to First Baptist, the mother church. Symbolically, the balcony of First Baptist was closed during the joint service. Next year, members of First Baptist will visit Beulah Baptist. The churches are about 10 miles from each other.

(RNS)