GUILFORD — The multi-purpose building of the First Baptist Church on Main Street in downtown Brattleboro might need to be sold by the dwindling congregation.
At an informational meeting on Nov. 23, the church members were made aware of this possibility because of rising costs and limited resources.
The neo-gothic design building, built in 1867, with subsequent renovations and additions, serves the Brattleboro community not only as a place for worship - including ecumenical and interfaith services, for weddings, and for funerals - but also as a location for concerts, for the winter overnight overflow shelter for homeless people, and for warm and nutritious meals.
It offers a meeting place for daily Alcoholics Anonymous gatherings, office and counseling rooms for the Brattleboro Pastoral Counseling Center, and most recently a facility for the Inclusion Center, serving the needs of persons with disabilities.
It even provides a location for an occasional public-health screening clinic, easily accessible from Main Street and the church parking lot.
Public dinners, yard and tag sales, rummage sales, and Christmas fairs with children's craft activities also take place in this building.
The church sanctuary, expanded downward near the turn of the 19th to the 20th century to accommodate its magnificent Julius Estey Memorial Organ, provides exceptional acoustics for public concerts, from individual or small-group performances to full orchestras and/or choruses. It is accessible for all comers.
First Baptist Church will observe its 175th year in 2015, founded in 1840 by a small group of young adults, including a local plumber, Jacob Estey, who would found the Estey Organ Company.
This group of committed Christians were drawn together by the Baptist principles of religious freedom, believer's baptism, and Biblical authority unbridled by any formal creed, which allowed greater freedom of thought in understanding and expressing their faith.
They congregated by mutual covenant, with baptism as adults symbolizing their own personal coming-to-faith experience and their commitment to be devoted followers of Christ Jesus.
Membership grew rapidly; within a generation, the members of the congregation had moved into three progressively larger locations until finally erecting their own building.
Still today, after almost a century and a half, the First Baptist Church building stands proudly as a bastion of service and integrity to the larger community downtown.
A loss of this excellent facility would truly be unfortunate for the Brattleboro community.