The History of the United Baptist Church of Scriba

& the Baptist Religion

We are the United Baptist Church of Scriba.  We are the spiritual descendants of the people who formed the North Scriba Baptist Church in 1828, and the people who formed the Scriba Community Baptist Church in about 1883.  Those congregations each organized themselves to serve the Lord, and their community, and worked diligently to do both.

            Prior to 1828, worship services were held in schools, homes, or barns; and traveling preachers, called circuit riders, rode in with just their saddlebags periodically.  These preachers sowed the seed for the first churches.

            The first religious organization in Scriba was effected January 7, 1828, when the Free Communion Baptist Church in North Scriba was founded.  The constitutional members (Charter members), seven in number, were:  Daniel Knapp, Samuel Frazier, John Sweet, Stephen Krumb, William Coon, Daniel and Lucy Gorsline.  This society was dissolved December 13, 1831, and the First Free Baptist Church of North Scriba was legally organized.

            Meetings were held regularly in barns and various log school houses on what is known as the North Road (County Route 1).  At the time that the Society was organized, people went to church on horse back.  In 1848 land was donated for the first church building in Scriba by Mr. & Mrs. Rufus Miner.  It was completed in 1848.  The church was illumined by candles and/or kerosene lamps; and the evening services were called “Early Candlelight Services”.  The North Scriba structure, used until the merger, was built in 1875.

            The earliest document found pertaining to the Scriba Baptist Society is dated 1827.  William Burt and Walter Read were elected trustees to manage the concerns of the Society.  Some of the members were James P. Douglap, Jepe Cook, Chapman Morgan, James Church, and with Ambrose Morgan , Clerk.  The meeting was held at the school house in School District No. 10, where the church met for worship.

            Early in 1883, a group met at the home of E.C. Stone at Scriba Corners to start the Scriba Corners church.  Brother George Groffley was the first pastor, serving 19 members.  The Scriba Corners church building was built in 1886, and dedicated on December 6^th of that year.

            For baptisms, the two congregations went to Lake Ontario or various ponds and streams, sometimes even breaking the ice for immersion. 

In the 1950’s, these two churches were sharing a minister, but remained independent.  By the 1970’s, membership was low enough that a full-time minister couldn’t be supported, and a local, retired minister was filling the pulpit on a part-time basis.  However, by the late seventies and early eighties, significant growth was taking place, both in numbers and within the members.  The presence of the Holy Spirit was evident, and active. 

By 1977 the two churches were worshipping together during the summer months, July in one church and August in the other.  In 1978 the churches conducted joint services on a one year trial bases.  Both churches voted to proceed with the merger of the two churches at a joint meeting November 23, 1980.  On January 11, 1981, the merger was signed.

The two churches officially merged on January 29, 1981 to form the United Baptist Church of Scriba.  The first stage of a building program was completed in 1994, with the present facility being built debt free.  There are plans to add a sanctuary and an education wing in the future.  At that time, the present area will become the fellowship hall.  Our 12 acre site on State Highway 104 provides plenty of room for that expansion, and has a three bedroom home for the Pastor that is close enough to be convenient, but separated enough to be private.

            The Baptist religion didn’t have its beginning here in Scriba, though.  The Baptists are one of the largest non-Catholic Christian groups in the world.  Baptist do not look to any one person as their founder.  As a church they began in Holland and England.

In the early 1500’s the movement of the Reformation got its start when.  Martin Luther led many to break away from the Roman Catholic Church.  He attacked the church’s view of indulgences, which were the payments to the Church for attaining pardon from sin.  Luther declared all believers were priests.  He attacked the Pope’s right to interpret Scripture.  He felt that wherever the Holy Spirit dwelt, one could understand Scripture. 

Through God’s providence, people in Germany and other parts of Europe began to look to Scripture as the Christian’s sole authority.  There was a movement back to the Bible.  Men were being used by God to take the message of God’s sovereignty to the world.

           England separated itself from Catholicism in 1536, but some reformers also became dissatisfied with the Church of England.  They included:  The Puritans who tried to reform the church from within; the Independents who retained their membership in the Church of England, but met separately; and the Separatists who were determined to break from the Church of England.

            The Separatists were persecuted by the Church of England.  In 1608, John Smyth left the Anglican Church, and led the Separatists to Holland to escape persecution.  Then in 1612, the group returned to England under the leadership of Thomas Helwys.  Helwys and his followers worshiped secretly near London.  This became the first Baptist church on  British soil.  They believed that Christ’s atonement was for all people.  Because of this belief they were called “General Baptists.”

            About this same time several congregations in England also formed independent churches practicing baptism by immersion.  But because they had the view that Christ’s atonement was only for those whom God had chosen they were called “Particular Baptists.”

            These early Baptist were deeply convinced that every soul must have

freedom to decide religious matters for himself or herself.  This was a conviction that was well liked in the American colonies where ideas concerning individual freedom were being planted.

 In 1631 Roger Williams, an English Separatist minister, began to teach separation of church and state in Massachusetts.  Because of this he was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.  In 1636 he founded Rhode Island Colony.  Three years later in Providence he established the first Baptist church in America.  Rhode Island became the first government anywhere to guarantee complete religious liberty for everyone.  Many other religious groups later came to affirm this principle, and it was included in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

            By 1772 blacks were received into membership of the First Baptist churches of Providence and Boston.  However, issues of slavery and the Civil War

led to the early establishment of several separate black Baptist churches and in 1845 to the division of the Baptists into the Southern Baptists and the Northern Baptists.

            In 1783 the missionary movement started in America with some freed slaves, when a church was established in the West Indies.  Some Baptists in England insisted that repentance and faith are human duties and that the gospel must be preached to all.  In the years following the American Revolution, Baptists in both England and America united to financially support the missionary work of William Carey in India.  This was the beginning of Baptists reaching out to spread God’s Word throughout the world through missionaries.

            Baptists were also one of the first denominations to recognize that God’s call to ministry comes to women as well as men.  They began to commission and ordain women to missionary work and Christian ministry in the 1800’s.

            It is because of the many early religious pioneers in Europe and America, who willingly stood for what they believed, in spite of great persecution, that the United Baptist Church of Scriba is here today.