WHEREAS, Mount Olive Baptist Church, the first African American church in Stafford County, has provided spiritual leadership, generous outreach, and opportunities for joyful worship to local residents for 200 years; and

WHEREAS, Mount Olive Baptist Church was established near Roseville on May 16, 1818, with five founding members under the leadership of the Reverend Horace Crutcher, and the congregation held its first services under a slab wood shelter; and

WHEREAS, over the years, Mount Olive Baptist Church has grown and expanded to better meet the needs of the community; its current building on Mount Olive Road was completed in December 2010; and

WHEREAS, Mount Olive Baptist Church has expanded its ministries to include excellent church choirs, Sunday school classes, youth ministry, senior ministry, men's and women's fellowship programs, and a food ministry; members of the congregation have carried out missionary work throughout the world, including programs in Zambia, Ghana, and New Zealand; and

WHEREAS, Mount Olive Baptist Church maintains active fellowships and memberships in the American Baptist Churches of the South, the Northern Virginia Baptist Association, the Mattaponi Baptist Association of Virginia, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Lakeland Forest Property Owners Association, the Foreign Mission Board, the Lott Cary Foreign Mission Convention, and the Stafford County Ministerial Association; and

WHEREAS, Mount Olive Baptist Church is an integral partner with Stafford County, ministering to the needs of the community through programs such as the Sickle Cell Association, Virginia's Adopt-A-Highway program, and SERVE (Stafford Emergency Relief through Volunteer Efforts), and its dedicated members actively support the local fire department and rescue squad and the Baptist Children's Home of Virginia; and

WHEREAS, Mount Olive Baptist Church fosters empowerment through education by providing scholarship funds to deserving students, as well as supporting Virginia Union University and Norfolk State University; and

WHEREAS, today Mount Olive Baptist Church thrives under the direction of the Reverend Dr. Eric Shaw, with the support of its assistant pastors—the Reverend Dr. Gary Carr, the Reverend Robin Carr, the Reverend Jesse Hawkins III, Minister Linda Hawthorne, the Reverend Zolly Hawthorne, and the Reverend Gloria Jackson—as well as officers, administrative staff members, deacons and deaconesses, and trustees; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, That Mount Olive Baptist Church hereby be commended on the occasion of its 200th anniversary in 2018; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the Reverend Dr. Eric Shaw, pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, as an expression of the House of Delegates' admiration for the church's storied history and legacy of contributions to the Stafford community.