Refuge Fellowship Baptisms in Oklahoma River
50 new Disciples to be baptized Oct. 18th plus “Congregation in Formation” Celebration Oct. 19th
As many of you may already know, Refuge Fellowship Church will be holding a large baptism in the Oklahoma River on Sunday, October 18th, at 3 pm. This is the day before Refuge’s big celebration (Monday, Oct. 19th) to mark their recognition as a “Congregation in Formation” within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
We have secured approval from the City of Oklahoma City to conduct this service, which will be held at the boat ramp at 1105 S. Byers Ave., on the south bank of the river, just west of the Lincoln Blvd. bridge.
Clergy – We need your help
Refuge Fellowship Church would like to invite all of you to attend, and if you have any new believers who would also like to be baptized in the Oklahoma River, they’re certainly welcome to participate as well.
Refuge Fellowship welcomes any clergy who may wish to participate in the baptism service.
At this time, we are looking to find either a couple of tents with an internal height of around 6 feet (or more) or an RV/motor home, to use as a changing area for our participants. And we also need a goodly supply of towels.
We have surveyed the site, which is a hard-surface concrete boat ramp. While the water is somewhat murky (naturally), the current water temperature is still relatively warm, in the low 70s, though this may change if we get a significant amount of rain between now and then. The underwater surface does have an thin accumulation of mud (perhaps half an inch thick), and there are a number of fist-sized rocks scattered around the area; flip-flops (or hip waders) are recommended for anyone wishing to participate in actually conducting the baptisms.
Please see below for some incredible history of Disciples river baptisms in 1889.
If you or any member of your congregation would like to participate, please contact Rev. Noel Gray at tendernoel@aol.com or me at sean.shenold@gmail.com.
Blessings,
Sean Shenold and Pastor Noel
There is a significant tie-in to the history of the Disciples in central Oklahoma
Most of central Oklahoma was opened up to settlement in the first of the land runs, on April 22, 1889, which was a Monday that year. That first Sunday, April 28th, a multi-denominational prayer service was held outside the tent that served as our first City Hall, and on subsequent Sundays the various denominational groups began forming.
As for the Disciples, a Rev. T.J. Head had made the run, and in the May 18th edition of the Gazette, which was our first newspaper, an advertisement appeared, appealing for all area Disciples, and anyone else interested, to meet to begin forming a congregation. For his part, Rev. Head must have been a pretty effective evangelist, as in the next 2 weeks he had 28 new believers make a public confession of faith and wanting to be baptized.
Of course, they had no church building and certainly no baptistery, but the North Canadian River was readily available. There was one problem, however. Oklahoma City in those days was extremely ‘rowdy’, and having already had some problems with the rowdier elements, Rev. Head was concerned about conducting the baptisms in the river. So he approached a Capt. Sikes, commanding C Company, United States 5th Cavalry Regiment. Capt. Sikes was suitably impressed by Rev. Head, and agreed to assist by ensuring the baptisms would not be disrupted.
So, on Sunday, June 2, 1889, Capt. Sikes led a procession down to the river, with 200 cavalry troopers on horseback, in full parade dress, accompanied by the nascent congregation with the 28 new believers to be baptized. Capt. Sikes’ troops deployed on both sides of the river, and thus suitably secured, the baptisms were accomplished without a hitch.
Of course, that group of Disciples goes on to found what became First Christian Church of Oklahoma City. And in the fullness of time, First helped to establish new Disciples congregations throughout the area, directly starting four new congregations themselves, and providing many of the leaders who established the Oklahoma City Christian Missionary Society in the late 1920s.
Twenty years after that, the OCCMS re-organized and changed its name to the Christian Church Commission,which still exists today, and still helps to establish new Disciples congregations in our area – including (among many others) Refuge Fellowship Church. In many respects, therefore, this baptism there in the river all those years ago marked the beginning of the Disciples in today’s Oklahoma City metropolitan area.
So today, in our time, the congregation of Refuge Fellowship Church, in many respects very much like those Disciples of long ago, not having a building or a baptistery of their own, have decided to seek the same solution as our distant predecessors.
