So out the blue this morning, a thought popped into my mind, do Baptists have any sacred places? (On that question see Graham Watts essay 'Can A Baptist Believe in Sacred Place?' in Baptist Sacramentalism 2). There was a prior thought, which was a minister friend of mine mentioned that on sabbatical he is going to do a pilgrimage. Nothing can to mind. It seems we have no places of pilgrimage, perhaps for good reasons. I thought then went but do we even have particular storied places, places that are significant to the telling of our story? Which led to the question, could we create a storied map of Baptist life and history in the UK? Where would it be important to visit?
I'm not sure of any answers to those questions. My first thoughts were to think possibly of Broadmead Baptist in Bristol (1640), Bunyan Meeting, Bedford (1650) and New Road Baptist in Oxford (1780).
Since a lot of the early Baptist growth came about through organic and persecuted environments, a lot of the congregations seem to be quite transient. I immediately thought of New Park Street congregation which had both Keach (1668) and Spurgeon (1854) ministering to them. But none of their buildings have lasted I don't think.
Posted by: Phil Laver | November 18, 2013 at 03:39 PM