Saco parishioners unite to celebrate centennial

When the Main Street Baptist Church and Cutts Avenue Free Will Baptist Church in Saco joined forces 100 years ago, $100 would allow a person to buy about $1,793.84 of goods in today’s money.

The two churches became the United Baptist Church. This year, several events to celebrate the march forward in time are being planned at the church’s home at 318 Main St.

Committee members have taken on the task of compiling the history of each decade, with celebrations to include a Mother’s Day concert featuring the Funky Divas of gospel, as well as dinners and other events. 

Beverly Lowell is also celebrating a milestone this year, when she marks 10 years as the church minister.

Lowell started as a parishioner at United Baptist Church in 1986. She then served as a Sunday school teacher, director of education and a board member before becoming the assistant pastor. She was drawn to the pulpit after completing her studies at Andover Newton in Massachusetts. Lowell took over when Burton Howe retired after leading the church for 32 years.

Though it was a time when few women were leading houses of worship, Lowell, like most pastors before her, felt she was called to the ministry.

“It was just a feeling that led to that,” she said. “It’s what you’re supposed to be doing.”

While members of both the Main Street and Cutts Avenue churches were Baptists, they became divisive in the 1800s and by the turn of the century there were “strong issues,” Lowell said. “There were a lot of differences and a lot of similarities.”

Erwin Warren, an original member born in 1921, almost lived long enough to celebrate the milestone. According to an online obituary he died in 2020.

In a 2018 oral history he said his first memory was when he was “just a little shaver and I got my shoes off and everybody was giggling.”

Heaving a big sigh, Warren said in the interview that he only went to Sunday school “when the folks made me go to Sunday school.”

Warren apparently grew to like church services: he was an usher for 90 years and a trustee “since Hector had pups. Forever.”

When he was asked who his favorite pastor, was, Lowell replied, “Oh, it wasn’t Herman Noyes. Herman, he was an odd duck, I thought.”

The most special thing about United Baptist Church of Saco is “the friendliness of it,” Lowell said.

“I think some of the churches, the people there are maybe a little higher class than we are, but they have bumps on their shoulders,” she said. “There used to be people at the Congo (congregational church) that thought they were God almighty. I don’t know as we have anyone at the Baptist Church that thought that.”

Ann Fisher is a freelance journalist based in Saco. She can be reached at 432-7483.

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