This year First Baptist Church celebrates its centennial year as an integral part of the Yorkton community. Celebrations to mark this event were held August 4 to 6.

Many former parishioners returned to Yorkton to mark the occasion and to renew friendships.

Before there were churches in the area, services were held in the homes of the pioneers or, in the summer, in tents. Student ministers would come out for the summer months and minister to the settlers. Those of the Baptist faith were ministered to by various students from Brandon College and from Ontario.

In 1897the first Baptist services were held in a tent with a student pastor from Brandon College, J.C.Bowen, who later became Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. He visited his parishioners by foot and by horseback.

Later several others came to hold services for this band of 28 people--some travelling by foot or oxcart from as far away as Springside.

Later services were held in Meredith Hall, an upstairs room in the Carson Block (later known as the Smith Block) on Broadway.

On September 16, 1900, at a meeting chaired by Rev. Vinning, who was the Superintendent of Missions, and with Mr. Bowen as clerk, the 28 people present decided to organize themselves into a church.

Officers were elected, and it was decided to build a church building. To help fund the construction a cow and $500 were pledged. August Reusch donated bricks from his brickyard, and property next to Dr. Patrick's home.

The new building of solid brick was located at the corner of Third Avenue and Smith Street.

A dedication service was held in November, 1901. Rev. Peter Carey accepted a call from the church as the minister in the new building, but until he was free to come to Yorkton, church services were conducted by two student pastors.

The Careys lived in a home where the Yorkton and District Nursing Home now stands. At that time the property was outside the town limits. His grandson Peter Carey is still an active member of First Baptist Church.

The church continued to flourish and serve the needs of its congregation.

With the growth of the city, plans were made to widen Smith Street. The property on which First Baptist Church was located was part of the widening process. In 1955 negotiations between the city and the church were completed and a new location on the northwest corner of Third and Smith was acquired by the church on which a new building would be built.

On May 5, 1955, the first sod for the new building was turned by E.R. Parsons, a charter member of the church, and on June 21,1955, the cornerstone was laid.

On that day the last church service was held in the old building, and the next morning, the men of the congregation started to dismantle the old building.

By September, 1955, services were held in the basement of the new building and on November 12, 1955, the first service was held in the sanctuary, though work was not completed. The completed building was dedicated in a service held on October 21, 1956.

The church and congregation are known as the friendly church. My husband and I came to Yorkton a week before Christmas in 1944. Rev. Alvin Hamill, the pastor of First Baptist, was our neighbour in the apartment block and he invited us to join with them in a Christmas Eve service.

Although we were not of the Baptist denomination, we were welcomed to the church and to Yorkton. This warm welcome is something that I will never forget.

At the corner of Third and Smith Street just in front of the church on Smith Street is a bench dedicated by his family to the memory of Jack Fisher, who with his wife Vi worked so diligently for the church. Many will remember Mr. Fisher as the long-serving principal of Victoria School.

For the past 100 years First Baptist Church and its congregation have played a role in maintaining the values that were dear to the hearts of our pioneers. May this church and its values continue for the next 100 years.