collars and clerical robes. Church music was gradually changing from the old hymns to newer gospel sounds. As for age groups; the young people loved it, some others tolerated it and many seniors objected - it was ”new thinking”, and it was not going

to stop. Fifteen years earlier in 1967, Rev. Samuel M. Holmes, a maritimer and

minister at the Fourth Avenue Baptist Church in Ottawa, wrote an article, copied in theAtlantic Baptist. It was titled ”Looking Ahead - What Canadian Baptists should aim to do in the first decade of the let century”. In the article, Sam Holmes challenged Canadian Baptists to fight declining numbers by changing the unappealing perception and image of the Baptist church. He used the words, ”hard-shell, narrow, good, Reformed, Conservative, Fellowship, Convention, Evangelical”, etc. to describe other’s opinions, and suggested some Baptists are, ”so threatened by anything new as far as their religion is concerned, that they have long since ceased to believe that God has yet more light and truth for us in the twentieth century.” They would, ”do well to make a concerted, constructive effort to project a new image of themselves, in the light of historical change. Perhaps the way Baptists thought and acted 300, 100 and 50 years ago on current topics might not be God’s direction in the 21st century.” Rev. Sam Holmes article was a challenge to think ahead in molding the denomination for the Christian mission,

and more than a few were not listening. Religious attitudes were becoming much more liberal, and the Baptist

church was not exempt. God’s laws would never change, but understandings of them would. The perception of deacons, for example, changed greatly in the past 100 years, but perhaps the greatest attitude change related to the observance of the Lord’s Supper. In the early years of the Charlottetown Baptist Church only those members who truly felt worthy would partake in Communion. It was not a personal confession of sin to abstain, but if there was any guilty conscience, Communion was not observed. Numbers taking Communion were kept well into the 20th century. Today the monthly observance is still very personal and meaningful, but now almost everyone present partakes. The responsibility for all Christians is to see that change happens under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and according to the Bible. It is interesting to note that one thing has not changed; the belief that immersion is the only true form of Scriptural baptism. The same belief that led Thomas DesBrisay to organize the church in 1836 continues to apply today, as strongly as even

While some were saying that change was not good, the First Baptist Sunday School received an award for being the fastest

growing Sunday School in the province. On November 5th, 1984, at the annual Baptist Men’s Conference, Charlie Scranton and

Les Gillespie were presented plaques in recognition of their outstanding service to 136

Rev. Frank Locke