First Baptist Church celebrated its bicentennial year from January through December 2011 with the following commemorations and activities: 

• Sunday, June 19, a Father’s Day raffle to raise revenue for upcoming events.
• Monday, June 20, hosted the Bristol Historical Society’s monthly meeting; guest speaker Ray Batcher, curator of the society, shared some very interesting and informative history on the First Baptist Church; fresh strawberries, cake, and lemonade were served at the reception and tours of the church were offered.
• Monday, July 4, 16 members and friends marched in Bristol’s historic Independence Day Parade while other members and friends cheered them along the way!
• Monday, August 22, celebrated our actual 200^th anniversary with one hour of bell ringing, pot luck supper, and a brief worship service with hymn sing.
• Sunday, September 10, hosted an organ recital in our sanctuary. National concertizer Donald Dame performed on our 116 year old Brennan & Gleason tracker organ and a reception followed with a 200 Cupcake Collation. Tours of the church were also conducted.
• Sunday, September 18, formally celebrated our 200^th Anniversary with a rededication worship service and reception. 

A commemorative booklet was published which  included our rededication worship service along with our history, (found in old, hand written books in our archives,) up to the current time, biographies of former and present pastors, historic and contemporary photographs, and other church related materials.

Many thanks go to all the members and friends of First Baptist Church who contributed to our successful bicentennial year, especially: Pastor Nate for overseeing all the events; Bonnie for organizing the Father’s Day raffle and donating the banners that hung in front of the church proclaiming our anniversary, her brother Enzly for hanging the banners; Betty for donating, from the Fred Gilbert Memorial Fund, the Independence Day parade banner, carried by marchers, and the Chrysanthemum plants in the church garden (and helping to plant them along with Boy Scout Troop #2); Peg for providing the after parade picnic for the weary marchers; Donna, who on the anniversary of our August 22 founding presented her oil painting of First Baptist Church; Gail for researching, curating, and installing our history exhibit, and along with Len giving history talks and guiding visitors through the church; Terry for organizing the well attended organ recital and cupcake reception (and the many cooks that provided the 200 cupcakes!) her work organizing the rededication worship service, and choosing, arranging, and directing the choral and service music for our anniversary service; Peg and Cathy (who donated the flower pots) for arranging a beautiful display of potted plants for our September events; Patsy for organizing and editing the commemorative booklet; all those listed in the order of worship who participated in our historic celebration and rededication ceremony held in September; and everyone else who had a hand in our successful anniversary year!