A brief history of our church

Historians trace the earliest church labelled ‘Baptist’ back to 1609, among English exiles in Amsterdam who had suffered oppression and persecution from the state church. The first congregation in the UK was founded in 1612 in Spitalfields, London. Baptists were subject to periodic persecution throughout the 1600s for refusing to take the Anglican Communion or to conform to the principles of the restored Church of England.

In Melbourn, there are records of Baptist ‘Dissenters’ gathering as early as 1653, and these people faced opposition, and even imprisonment, in those early years. ‘Zion Baptist Church’ dates officially from 1675 when it appointed its first minister, Benjamin Metcalfe, who had obtained a licence to preach in his own house.

There has been a Baptist church in Melbourn continuously since that date, meeting in various places, but it wasn’t until 1745 that a church building was erected in the High Street, opposite the ‘White Cottages’ (this was demolished in 1937). The present church building, and later the church manse, were constructed on land obtained from John Mortlock in 1856, and the new church building opened on 21 October 1856.

On 27 October 1856, eight people were baptised at the new premises, which thereafter hosted annual visits of the 19th century’s most charismatic Baptist preacher, Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon. It is notable that records show more than 100 people were baptised between 1858 and 1861.

The church has continued to worship in the Baptist tradition up to the present day, baptising and welcoming new members, and also reaching out into the community – particularly to the elderly and to the young and their families.
A register listing all of the ministers and lay pastors who have led the church since 1675 was prepared in 2006 for the 150th Anniversary celebration of the current church building, and now hangs in the church.

The church voted to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation called ‘Zion Baptist Church, Melbourn’ in March 2016, registered charity number 1164945, but continues to be commonly known as ‘Melbourn Baptist Church’. It is governed by a constitution adopted by members in 2016.