Word
“Belief is truth held in the mind; faith is a fire in the heart.”

- Joseph Fort Newton

BY SASHA AUSTRIE


For 47 years the neighborhood surrounding Majority Baptist Church has morphed and transformed, but the church has a remained a constant.

Assistant Pastor the Rev. Darryl Frazier said the church is a symbol of “stability and outreach.”

The stability and outreach grew from a move from Harlem to Queens.

It was the 1960’s. Harlem was no longer in vogue and people were moving out of their poverty-stricken neighborhoods in droves. The Rev. Walter Jones was one of the many who saw the deterioration and moved his family from the upheaval that became Harlem.


“Our thoughts were to move out of Harlem we thought we were moving to Heaven,” Jones said.

Jones moved his family to a quiet street in Hollis. It was a predominantly white upper middle class neighborhood, a distinction that no longer remains.

“When one black family moved in five white families would move out,” Jones said.

Jones said he and his family were the second black family in the neighborhood and his children helped integrate PS 118.

The move gave Jones a sense of security. His children were enrolled in better schools and overall life was looking up. The move had one drawback; it left the Jones’ without a home church. Every Sunday the family drove to Harlem to attend services at Abyssinian Baptist Church.

In a small expanse of time Jones and a handful of followers had changed that. They had built their own church. The church was born out of a need for religious instruction for black children in the neighborhood. He said Jewish and Irish children were dismissed during the day for religious instruction, but the black children had nowhere to go.

Jones and his wife opened the doors to their home.

“We had cakes and cookies and hot chocolate,” Jones said. “It was recreational time. They needed some sort of religious instruction.”

Jones was a minister so he was a perfect fit. In any event, adults started to take notice and became interested. Jones broadened his base and included adult classes. Before long his flock had outgrown his home.

“The classes grew so there was nowhere to put the people,” Jones said. “They were in the dining room, kitchen, upstairs, downstairs.”

Jones said there was a call to start a church. The first location of Majority Baptist Church was a vacant bar and grill located at 115-21 Farmers Blvd. St. Albans.

The vibrant flock that had once filled every available space in his home whittled to 19 members on the first Sunday.

“Six women and 13 children came to the church to worship the first day the doors of the church opened,” Jones said. He speculates the reason people didn’t attend services was because of the scale the church operated on. He said people couldn’t fathom leaving Abyssinian Baptist Church “for a whole in the wall.”

The church has come a long way from 19 members and a “hole in the wall.” The church boasts approximately 200 members and has gone through a series of edifice changes.

The first structure is still part of the church, but throughout its 47 year existence there has been approximately six renovations and additions. The first expansion the church endured was in 1967, when the church joined the existing bar and grill and a defunct beauty parlor.

“We had to make room for the people,” Jones said.

The church’s property takes up more than half of a block, with the church, educational building and currently under construction new office and administrative buildings. According to Jones and Frazier, the church property is work approximately $3.5 million to $4 million

“It is a blessing to see how a little church has grown,” Frazier said.

To celebrate its growth the church is marking its 47th anniversary with celebratory services this month. The last Sunday, Oct. 28, will be Founders Day. The remaining living members of the original 19 will come back and cap of the celebration. Out of the 19, there are only six members that are active in the church including Jones and his wife.

Soon the church will endure an additional change. Jones will relinquish the role of pastor to Frazier.

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