CBF church disbands, donates facilities to SBC plant

BALTIMORE — A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church in Baltimore has disbanded and is donating its facilities valued at $2 million to a Southern Baptist church plant launched nearby five years ago. Patterson Park Baptist Church was constituted in 1913 in a neighborhood then bustling with row houses built to accommodate immigrant workers seeking jobs in waterfront factories, rail yards and wharves in the 1900s. Once thriving, the church had dwindled to 20 members.

Gallery Church will continue to meet at its downtown location near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Sundays at 9 a.m., followed by services at the Patterson Park “gathering community” at 11 a.m.

“These buildings, which have been very well maintained, will allow us space to worship and grow, expand our opportunities to love and teach children and offer permanent office space for our staff,” Derek Miller, executive pastor at Gallery Church, said in a YouTube video announcing the acquisition in August.

Patterson Park worshipped for the last time as a congregation Oct. 20. The following Sunday there was a joint worship service with both Patterson Park and Gallery Church, which coincided with the 100th anniversary of Patterson Park’s first recorded meeting on Oct. 29, 1913.