Historic church celebrates anniversary

AUSTIN (KXAN) - When Minister John Barkley and his wife, Bee Barkley went to visit Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson at their Johnson City ranch, they often chatted late into the night.

According to the Barkley's daughter, Gayle Barkley Chanson, the then U. S. Senator and his wife would then invite their guests to spend the night at the ranch.

"Johnson would loan my father a pair of his pajamas and so did Lady Bird loan my mother her nightgown," Chanson laughed.

The friendship between the two couples arose when the Johnsons started worshiping at Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Downtown Austin, where Barkley served as pastor for almost three decades.

"When he was running for vice-president, in the year 1960, Kennedy and Johnson, my mother actually got involved in his campaign on the whistle stop tour," said Chanson. In return for Ms. Barkley's help, LBJ, never a stranger to wheeling and dealing, offered the minister a spot on the inaugural platform in January of 1961, delivering the inaugural prayer.

All that is just part of the long and energetic history of Central Christian, a church born, appropriately enough, in a stable.

"Our congregation goes back to 1847 and that's when we were in the livery stable," said church historian Carey Taylor. "We were in a livery stable out on Congress Avenue."

From there, the congregation moved "uptown" to a log cabin. A succession of buildings followed in what is now the downtown area, culminating in the laying of the corner stone for the present building, at Guadalupe and 12th streets, in 1928. Along the way, a schism developed when the church got it's first organ.

"One lady was very upset about it and she said, 'Well, now we've got the organ; where are we going to find a monkey to dance to the music?" said Taylor. "I think after it split, the people that loved the music were happy and satisfied and the people that didn't were gone."

After Minister Barkley arrived at Central Christian in the fall of 1941, he committed himself to making at least 100 pastoral visits a month, counseling those in need and recruiting members. The congregation swelled from just a few hundred to well over 1,000.

Barkley also devoted himself to civil rights issues.

"He actually went to the Capitol to talk to the legislators, so that African-Americans could have equal rights, including housing, staying at any hotel or motel they wanted to, eat at any restaurant they wanted to and to be accepted into the universities, because at the time, they were not allowed to have those equal opportunities that we had back then," said Chansom.

To this day, Central Christian remains an integrated church and one African-American woman serves as a church elder.

On Nov. 18, the church will celebrate 80 years in its current building. Visitors are welcome.