The
oldest Baptist church in the territory which became the state of Vermontwas
founded at Shaftsbury
in
1768 and the second oldest was established at
Pownal in 1773. In the year 1780 these two churches, along with three
others in nearby parts of Massachusetts and New York State, formed the
Shaftsbury Baptist Association.
This body became a powerful centre of Baptist
influence and drew into its fellowship a great many churches. From its
ranks were formed several other associations in the neighboring parts of
Vermont,
New York, and
New Hampshire, but its outreach to distant parts was such
that in time it came to include five churches in Upper Canada. These were
Charlotteville,
Townsend, Clinton, Oxford, and Malahide. It numbered among its leaders
men of great force of character and remarkable personal qualitiies, including
the Rev. Caleb Blood, who was nine times elected to the office of moderator,
and the Rev. Lemuel Covell, an indefatigable evangelist who was chosen
clerk in the year 1800.
In 1801, with Blood as moderator and Covell as clerk, the
Shaftsbury
Associationundertook to raise a special sum of money to send missionaries
out on tour, and the following year a missionary committee, composed after
apostolic precedent of 12 members, 6 ministers, 6 laymen, was appointed
to administer the fund that had been contributed. Caleb Blood himself volunteered
to go on tour that year, and became the first of a considerable company
of missionaries to represent the Association in the newly settled parts
of western New York State and Upper Canada. Between the years 1802 and
1820
the Shaftsbury Association sent no fewer than 15 different preachers into
this province on various tours which lasted anywhere from a few weeks to
several months each.
In 1877, the Association celebrated its 97th Anniversary at Shaftsbury
where it had been founded. To honor the occasion, the Associations's official
historian,
Stephen Wright, composed a poem, which, though of doubtful literary
merit, conveys something of the missionary zeal of those early days; it
refers to the Canadian aspect of its work in the closing lines:
| "Rich
harvests were thus gathered beyond Niagara's roar And churches of
believers were planted far and near; The tidings of salvation along
Ontario's shore Were wafted on the breezes with right goodwill and cheer." |
Source:
Baptists of Upper & Lower Canada by Ivison & Rosser
Submitted by
Colleen.
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