Metropolitan Baptist Church (Washington DC)

The Metropolitan Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Washington, DC. The address of the church is 1225 R Street, Northwest Washington, DC,20009.

The congregation traces its beginning to a Quaker-run Civil War "contraband" barracks in the Shaw community of Washington. The 4000 freed slaves housed in the barracks at Shaw (then called "Hell's Bottom") from 1862 to 1863 were ministered to by the Reverend Henry Bailey. Bailey, with ten original members, founded and built the Fourth Baptist Church in 1864. The church was located across the street from Camp Barker, which housed the contraband barracks of "Hells Bottom."

Metropolitan's membership has grown to well over 6,000, with more than 40 ministries, more than 100 full-time and part-time employees, and a consolidated annual operating budget, including four subsidiary corporations, exceeding $10 million. [http://www.metropolitanbaptist.org/pastors.asp Official Website of Metropolitan Baptist Church]

Metropolitan holds the distinction of having had only five pastors in its history since 1864: Reverend Henry Bailey (1864-1870); Reverend Robert Johnson (1870-1903); Reverend Moses W. D. Norman, D.D., LL.D (1905-1926); Reverend Earnest Clarence Smith (1928-1977); and Reverend H. Beecher Hicks, Jr. (1977 - present).

Metropolitan's current Pastor, Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., was named one of America's greatest Black preachers by Ebony magazine in 1993. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n1_v49/ai_14258251 The 15 Greatest Black Preachers,] Ebony, November 1993, retrieved from Findarticles.com on July 25, 2007]

Metropolitan also boasts a first-rate music and arts ministry, led by Rev. Nolan Williams, Jr., minister of music, and staffed with such luminaries as Richard Smallwood, artist-in-residence.

In the fall of 2008, Metropolitan will be relocating to its new 30 acre campus in Largo, Maryland.

References

External links

* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_n11_v26/ai_18319750 Giving a hero his due--Remembering Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, By Earl Graves, Black Enterpise] Article on Memorial of Ron Brown at Metropolitan Baptist Church, Retrieved from FindArticles.com on July 25, 2007