Saturday, November 29, 2008

Zion Baptist Church

Zion Baptist Church: Enlisting, Educating, Empowering, Encouraging and Exalting

Located just off of 16th Street at 4850 Blagden Avenue NW is Zion Baptist Church. I'm including Zion Baptist in my Churches of 16th Street series because it is visible from 16th Street and it is one of the larger churches in the stretch between the White House and the Maryland state border.

According to the church's website, six Baptists moved from the Commonwealth of Virginia into the District in 1861 and began meeting. Two years later, nine more believers were baptized into the faith and a year later, in September 1864, these 15 Baptists and their pastor formed Zion Baptist Church. The congregation originally met on 3rd Street NW between E and F Streets. Sometime in the 1960s, the church built this edifice on Blagden Avenue. Today, Zion Baptist continues to be a vibrant community of worshipers. The church's mission states that it "shall enlist sinners, educate students, empower the suffering, encourage the saints, and exalt our Savior."

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

2 comments:

Maya said...

shall enlist sinners? Interesting...

Janet Kincaid said...

Maya: Yeah, I thought that was kind of interesting, too. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the Baptist belief that we are all sinners. I don't know.