2025 Outstanding Community Organization: Queen Anne Baptist Church

The Queen Anne Historical Society presented its 2025 Preservation Award for Outstanding Community Organization to the Queen Anne Baptist Church (QABC). On May 17 of this year, the QABC celebrated the 100th anniversary of its first building at the corner of Crockett Street and First Avenue North. The celebration marked a century of dedication to inclusion, social justice and community outreach by QABC leadership and congregants.

Queen Anne Baptist Church. Photo: QAHS, 2025.

Throughout its history, QABC has responded to injustice and need with courage and generosity. In the 1940s, QABC sponsored a family fleeing the Holocaust and its Women’s Mission Society formed the Japanese Board, which emphasized the importance of ensuring that Japanese people did not suffer discrimination. When Japanese Americans were relocated from Seattle to the Minidoka internment camp, QABC members made trips to Idaho to visit their former neighbors and show their support. In 1974, QABC helped establish “The Shelter”, a safe haven for runaway youth.

Diversity, anti-racism and inclusion are core values at QABC. In 2004, Rev. Cathy Johnson became QABC’s first female pastor. In 2021, the congregation completed a discernment process to become an LGBTQIA+ Welcoming and Affirming church, and in 2023, joined the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists. Today, the QABC is led by Rev. Dr. Victoria Carr-Ware. Carr-Ware is QABC’s first Black Senior Pastor and the first person of color to serve in the role. In 2025, Rev. Alex Booker was appointed Associate Pastor for Social Justice and Outreach, furthering QABC’s commitment to advocacy and equality.

The church’s legacy of community outreach continues today with a monthly sandwich ministry in partnership with the Queen Anne Food Bank. Volunteers, including Girl Scouts, make 300 sandwiches for people facing food insecurity. QABC provides ongoing support for New Horizons Youth Ministries and Real Rent Duwamish, and is exploring ways to partner with the Queen Anne Helpline and the Union Gospel Mission to expand its social justice efforts.

The Queen Anne Historical Society is grateful and proud to have the QABC in our neighborhood and thanks them for their steadfast dedication to their mission.

More information about the history and mission of QABC can be found here.