History of MPBC
On Sunday 4th March, 1888 Blanchard Slade started a Sunday School in Union Road, Ascot Vale. He was 24 years old, son of a Pastor and a member of the Newmarket Baptist Church. On this first Sunday only five children turned up. The next week, following some visitation, 25 came along.
On July 1, 1888 the Newmarket Baptist Church adopted this growing Sunday School and provided finance and workers.
On the 10th January, 1892 the Ascot Vale Baptist Church was started with 25 members from the Newmarket Church and 12 from other Churches. Land was purchased at 98 Athol Street and a hall was built. In 1910 the Church relocated to the corner of Laura and Eglinton Streets, Moonee Ponds.
The membership of the Church peaked in 1914 at 164.
In 1933, two years before the Sunday School Hall was built, there were over 250 children on the Sunday School roll with 40 teachers.
In 1952 church membership stood at 41 but has been on the increase since then.
In 1970 the Church stated to develop what was to become a multicultural focus. It was decided in that year to reach out to the Italians in the community. After a few years an Italian congregation was formed which later transferred to meet at the Moreland Church.
The foundations of a Spanish speaking church were established in 1972 with the arrival of a family from Cuba. The "Luz y Vida" ("Light and Life") church grew rapidly, and in 1989 combined with the "Ebenezer" Spanish speaking church to form the Spanish Baptist Church. This church now meets in Tottenham as the Tottenham Bilingual Baptist Church.
In 1978 a Filipino couple and their two children began to worship with us. Many more Filipino families joined us and in 1996 the Westhaven Baptist Church was constituted reaching out to Filipino people in the St. Albans area. It is now the Brimbank Baptist Church meeting in Delahey.
The church embarked on a rebuilding project in 1994.
In 1893 a Church meeting decided unanimously "that a prayer union be formed, first to pray for the preacher, second that the Church may be filled and a large number of unconverted brought in". The Church continues to pray this way.
