Historic Patterson Baptist Church a Fitting Site for Patriotic Prayer

Michael Brendan Dougherty Patterson Baptist Church The historic Patterson Baptist Church will open its doors to the public all day Thursday, May 7, for the National Day of Prayer. The pastor, Dr. Larry Maxwell says, "It is important to pray for our leaders, so we've been involved in the National Day of Prayer for 15 years now."

Patterson Baptist seems a fitting site to host such an event as its roots stretch near to the founding of the nation. Patterson Baptist was the first Baptist congregation founded in New York, as well as the first corporation in New York— legally recognized in 1794. The Patterson Baptist congregation eventually joined with the Danbury Baptist Association in writing a letter to Thomas Jefferson, seeking to understand how the new American Republic would respect religious minorities. The local Baptist churchs worried the establishment of the Episcopalian Church was imminent, and feared for their right to worship.

Jefferson's reply is now famous:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the

legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

The doors open at the Route 311 church at 8 am and will remain open until 8 pm. Pastor Maxwell has provided forms for prayer requests that can be left in the church, and has signed up volunteers to be in the church every hour of the day, he says, "in case anyone wants to have someone else pray with them, though they are free to pray on their own, of course" There will be a special prayer service at 7 pm. Members of all faiths and denominations are welcome.

Pastor Maxwell has served the Patterson Baptist Church since March 1995, when he came in as interim pastor. He has a Bachelor of Science from Liberty Baptist College (now Liberty University) in Lynchburg Virginia, and eventually attained his doctorate in Biblical Studies from the India Theological Seminary in India.

Pastor Maxwell reports that he has prayed for political leaders all across the world and often writes to them to let them know he has them in his intentions. Occasionally they reply. Some years ago he received a photograph from Massachusetts Senator, Ted Kennedy, signed "your friend." Maxwell laughs, "Is that something I want to hang up here? I don't know."

But for Maxwell, as for many that gather on this day, the prayers are not reserved only for those with whom they have political agreement, it is for all leaders. It is also a venerable American tradition stretching back to the days before the Republic. The Continental Congress issued a day of prayer "in forming a new nation" in 1775. And President John Adams, even declared in 1798 for "a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer" so that "our country may be protected from all dangers which threaten it."

Ultimately, for Pastor Maxwell, the National Day of Prayer has its origins in Holy Scripture. He quotes 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."