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2022 SPECIAL SESSION I


HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 629
Commending Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Powhatan.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, June 1, 2022

 

WHEREAS, what has been said of Europe may well be paraphrased to state that the faith is the South, and the South is the faith; and

WHEREAS, Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Powhatan will soon celebrate 150 years of faithful Christian worship, discipleship, evangelization, and ministry, including to numerous needy individuals and many of the important social assistance endeavors in the community of Powhatan County; and

WHEREAS, in the antebellum era, enslaved Blacks from the Smith’s Crossroads area were allowed to worship at two churches in their vicinity—Petersville and Mt. Carmel; and

WHEREAS, upon emancipation, these Christian men and women, newly free, wished to establish a place of worship of their own; and

WHEREAS, Hollywood Baptist Church was the first new church established through these prayerful endeavors, but because of the remote and scattered residences of that time, most of the communal Christian life was restricted to prayer meetings held by small groups in the area of Smith’s Crossroads; and

WHEREAS, “from this great body of praying Christians,” as today’s members of the congregation acclaim, Mt. Zion Baptist Church was established in 1872, and land for the church’s building was subsequently donated by Brother Pembrook Mosby; and

WHEREAS, the Reverend Ned Goodman was the first minister to preach in the original building, and the Reverend Alfred Morris was the first minister elected to serve as pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church; and

WHEREAS, founders of the congregation were Brothers Henry Brown, Isaac Braxton, Sam Braxton, Stephen Brown, Frank Falcon, Hennible Lee, A. D. Hewitt, and T. G. Hewitt, together with Sisters Fannie Brown, Sarah Jackson, Nancy Lee, Rebecca Pittman, Ann Mosby, and Edith Howell; and

WHEREAS, early pastors, succeeding Reverend Morris, were the Reverends T. P. Harris, I. P. Brown, J. R. West, W. L. Morris, A. J. Ryan, and W. L. Saunders; and

WHEREAS, under the pastorship of Reverend Ryan, the church’s first Young Men and Young Women clubs were organized; and

WHEREAS, in 1939, Brother J. P. Bell moved that the congregation build a new church building, leading to the formation of a committee composed of Brothers J. P. Bell, J. W. Bell, Sr., J. J. Howell, George Morris, Edward Taylor, and L. T. Harris; and

WHEREAS, the congregation thereafter was able to raise, through a variety of endeavors, the sum of $1,406.44 to commence the building project; and

WHEREAS, a basement having been dug and the foundation laid, it was in mid-December of 1949 that the congregation decided to borrow $3,000 from the Bank of Powhatan to complete the outside of the structure and, importantly, to prepare a sanctuary for worship services; and

WHEREAS, the signers of the bank note were the Reverend W. L. Saunders, who had been elected pastor of the church in November 1944, and Brothers John W. Bell, Sr., Alonzo Bell, Willie Williams, Luther Morris, Lee Harris, Cleveland Bradley, and Ernest Johnson and Sister Pearl Howell; and

WHEREAS, the majority of the work required to build and complete the structure was done by the men and women of the congregation, who donated their free labor for the project; and

WHEREAS, the church’s new building was dedicated to the worship of God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, on the second Sunday of March 1950; and

WHEREAS, in early 1998, the congregation decided to build a major addition to the church structure, and the work was conducted by John Milton Flippen, whose motto was “For Every House is Built by Someone, But the Builder of All Things is God”; the new addition was completed and dedicated on August 8, 1999; and

WHEREAS, “As we look back over the past 62 years since the first worship service in this edifice,” a church member previously observed, “we praise God for some of the accomplishments made: memorial windows, pulpit and communion furniture, new pews, a Hammond organ, a baptismal pool, waterproofing of the basement (assisted by the W.L. Saunders Memorial Club), and central air conditioning (donated by the W. L. Saunders Memorial Club)”; and

WHEREAS, in the course of its history, Mt. Zion Baptist Church has supported the community through local food banks, the Christmas Mother program, Autism Speaks, the American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross, the Powhatan Free Clinic, the Powhatan Rescue Squad, and, as a participating member, the Powhatan Coalition of Churches; and

WHEREAS, to commemorate the church’s establishment, members of Mt. Zion Baptist Church are planning two days of prayerful remembrance of the history of their congregation on October 15 and 16, 2022; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, That Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Powhatan and its members hereby be commended for 150 years of faithful Christian life and labor; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the Reverend Bryan J. Stevens and thereby to his entire flock in admiration and commendation of the great heritage and Christian witness across 150 years of the members of Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Powhatan.