Bon Air Presbyterian Church
Bon Air Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), which began in 1884, is an historic Presbyterian church and preschool located on Huguenot Road in Bon Air, Virginia, a census-designated place (CDP) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, in the United States.
Bon Air Presbyterian Church first began worshiping in a little Victorian Gothic building known as the “Union Chapel", located on Buford Road, south of the James River in the Southside of Richmond.
The number of members grew, and a new church building was erected at 9201 West Huguenot Road in North Chesterfield, Virginia to meet the needs of the larger congregation.
[2] The Victorian Gothic church building "originally was a long rectangular structure with a steep gable roof adorned with iron cresting and topped by a small open belfry.
When Mr. Burroughs died in 1915, he was buried at a site now surrounded by neighboring apartments, where his tombstone reads "Faithful unto Death".
A 1936 newspaper article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch stated that over a thousand children had known the farm as "home", maintaining an average of 50 boys and girls at a time.
[11] BAPC members often go to Montreat, North Carolina, a small town named with a portmanteau for the words "mountain" and "retreat."
[12] Former BAPC youth director Jeff Kellam, an ordained Presbyterian minister, maintained a radio “Showcase,” winning a national award in 1972.
[13] Bon Air Presbyterian Preschool (BAPP)[14][15] uses the Reggio Emilia approach to education and is committed to the creation of conditions for learning that will enhance and facilitate children’s construction of “his or her own powers of thinking through the synthesis of all the expressive, communicative and cognitive languages” (Edwards and Forman, 1993).
The church serves as a meeting center for such activities as church women's circles, GRIVA (Genealogical Research Institute of Virginia), Alcoholics Anonymous, Caritas, Yoga, American Association of University Women, Camp Hanover Art and Music Academy Summer Camp for children, and running exercise classes for adults.
A stage with a screen in the Fellowship Hall accommodates theatrical, musical, and educational presentations with an adjoining kitchen for preparing Wednesday Night Suppers and meals for other church events.
Community services by BAPC members include filling Salvation Army Christmas stockings after choosing recipients specified by age and gender and their wish list.
During a morning worship service, congregants have the opportunity to come forward to the altar, touch the shawls, and offer prayers of healing.
The Voices of Jubilee, Gospel Choir & Ministry in Bon Air Juvenile Correction Center was started by Revs.
In summer of 2017 a group of BAPC church members went to West Virginia to help re-build areas damaged by flood waters.
The participants chose as the 2017 topic “Encountering the Other: Living out our Faith Imperatives.” The aim of the gatherings is to deepen mutual understanding and appreciation between the three Abrahamic religious communities.
[23] During the COVID-19 pandemic, when BAPC members could not congregate, Miller taught a Bible study group series of classes via Zoom.
BAPC's Second Sunday South of the James Concert Series[24] in 2009 presented The Commonwealth Brass Ensemble, Organ & Timpani.
[25] Both the Cornel Zimmer pipe organ with digital augmentation installed in April 2013 replacing the original 1981 Schantz pipe organ[26] and the piano in the sanctuary at Bon Air Presbyterian Church are prized by members and professional guest musicians who play them.
In 2017 the Richmond Chamber Players presented a concert at BAPC honoring American composer Allan Blank, who before his death sometimes attended performances of his compositions at the church.
The church's Covenant Pastor Lauren Ramseur is the youth pastor and has taken groups from BAPC to Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina and has helped to begin and staff a choir program for youth at a correctional center in Bon Air.
The Bon Air Presbyterian Church calendar observes the religious holy days and seasons of Lent, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Advent, and Christmas.
