HISTORY - continued

American Baptists - continued

Sometimes referred to by other colonists as “Rogues Island,” here Williams insisted on freedom of conscience and a distinct separation of church and state. His legacy is that of an individualistic spirit, strong in personal conviction, but avid in defense of an opponent’s rights. That legacy, in part, is the spirit of The United Church of Los Alamos.

The Baptist movement spread throughout the colonies in the ensuing decades but it wasn’t until 1814, almost 200 years later that these independent, separatist churches came together in the early stages of a denomination. They called themselves, “The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions.” The unity was fragile and less than thirty years later, in 1841, geographical and theological differences centered on the issue of slavery began to erode what little unity existed. In 1845 northern and southern groups reorganized as two separate denominations. To this day we have Northern and Southern Baptists.

In the northern branch, the separatist tradition continued when, in the 1870’s, women of the northern churches formed their own home and foreign missionary societies. But separate appeals for funds brought confusion and dissatisfaction, leading to the formation of the Northern Baptist Convention in 1907. Restructured in 1972 . . . the name was changed to the American Baptist Convention.

The beliefs of the American Baptist Church are difficult to describe due to the continuing spirit of independence and separatism. In matters of faith each Baptist church speaks for itself though certainly primary in all Baptist churches is the Bible as the foundation of one’s belief . . . but always with the individual conscience as the interpreter of the Bible. That, as we will see, is a fundamental principal of the United Church and perhaps the most important contribution to this ecumenical church from the American Baptists.