Location 755 8th Street, NW Website www.calvarydc.org Founder Amos Kendall Date founded 1862 | Country United States Former name(s) E Street Baptist Phone +1 202-347-8355 Architect Adolf Cluss | |
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Denomination American Baptist Churches USA, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Alliance of Baptists Events Founding of the Northern Baptists, now the American Baptist Churches USA Address 755 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20001, USA Similar Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Third Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Deanwood, National Presbyterian Church, Capitol Hill Baptist Church Profiles | ||
Calvary Baptist Church is a diverse and historic Baptist church in the Chinatown neighborhood in Washington, D.C. affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Alliance of Baptists, the District of Columbia Baptist Convention, and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists. It severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention in July 2012. Since 2017, Calvary's Senior Co-Pastors have been Rev. Sally Sarratt and Rev. Maria Swearingen.
Contents
Mission and Congregation
Calvary focuses on its missions as an urban church in the heart of a great city. Its vision statement is:
We are an ecumenical, multi-racial, multi-ethnic Christian body committed to living faithfully in the heart of this great city. To that end we strive to be welcoming, responsive, trusting, and prayerful in everything we do.
Recently, this commitment has manifested in Calvary in its relationship with the Latino, and especially Salvadoran, population by introducing bilingual services and partnering with a church in El Salvador, led by Rev. Edgar Palacios. Calvary has also been involved in immigration reform efforts. Members of Calvary also were active on the issue of marriage equality.
In the past, this commitment has taken many forms. In the 1983, Calvary founded the Calvary Women's Shelter, now Calvary Women's Services, the first women's homeless shelter in Washington Metro area. Calvary's location near Chinatown has led to extensive outreach to the Chinese and Burmese communities. Calvary runs a summer camp, Camp Fraser near Great Falls, Virginia.
Calvary has played a significant role in Baptist life as the founding church of the Northern Baptist Convention (now the American Baptist Churches USA) in 1907, a leading church of the Baptist Sunday School movement at the turn of the century, a model for women's Sunday School, and is unique in Baptist life for having simultaneously had the President of the American Baptists, then pastor Clarence Cranford, and the Southern Baptists, former Democratic Member of Congress from Arkansas Brooks Hays, as members of the congregation. In 1955, it became the first white Baptist church in Washington, DC to admit an African-American member.
Calvary's sanctuary building was designed by the US-German architect Adolf Cluss, who also designed a number of other leading buildings in Washington.
Senior Pastors
Historic members
As a church in Washington, it has had a number of high-profile members including: