It's fairly uncommon to find a really beautiful Baptist church. That faith tradition has not historically emphasized the importance of beauty, and space, and light to create a sense of the numinous. If anything, they tended to see such things as worldly distractions from the real beauty of the sacred texts. But here in Pittsburgh, even the Baptists built beautiful churches--or at least one.
I've been telling myself for about a year that someday I'm going to drop in on First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh to ask permission to look around and take some pictures. Today at last was the day. Though the church office staff and clergy were not there, a friendly lady who works for their denomination (which has offices in the building) let me in and turned on the lights for me.
I was hoping she'd go back to work and let me roam free, but no such luck. She lingered near and chatted while I explored. This made it impossible to really look the place over and find its hidden corners.
Ah, but this old church has shadowy staircases, darkened rooms, and obscure passages aplenty. It's apparently a small congregation, despite the cavernous building, so much of the space sits unused, waiting for the faithful to return. Now, I've known Baptists who would have thought such things were idolatrous, but there's even a statue in this place!
Click on these photos to enlarge them; the florid details are worth seeing up close. Charles Connick, who designed and made the stained glass windows at First Baptist also did the windows at Heinz Chapel and East Liberty Presbyterian Church here in Pittsburgh, in addition to St. John the Divine Episcopal Cathedral and St. Patrick Roman Catholic Cathedral in New York.
Not sure who this is. It looks like a woman, and she's holding some sort of scroll. Because I felt as if I was being watched, I didn't bother to read the scroll. In fact, I hurried through my visit so that my hostess could return to work.
This fellow is definitely Moses. Not only is he holding the two tablets of the Decalogue, but he's got those telltale horns sprouting from his scalp. According to the myth, when Moses returned from the holy mountain where he'd communed with God and received the Law, his face was all aglow with a holy light. But because the Hebrew verb "to glow or radiate" can also mean "to grow horns," most old depictions of the Patriarch show him with horns.
Now that's a nice pulpit. The fellows carved in the skirt are probably the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
All in all, it's a much lighter, airier church than many of Pittsburgh's other neo-Gothic edifices. It's got a pleasant, open feel to it. The exterior details are worth a look, too.
Click on this photo. Above the main entrance, you've got the hand of Providence and the Agnus Dei flanked on both sides by symbols of the Twelve Apostles. A nice grapevine theme holds the whole composition together. The words etched into the archway are an obscure verse from the Book of Revelation: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."
