Thousands of churchgoers walked through a gate adorned with royal purple and gold balloons and ribbons. A large sign trumpeted: "Holy City of Zion."
To many, they had arrived at a promised land - despite the mounds of dirt, the construction equipment and chain-link fences.
"In the providence of God, we have come of age," said Bishop Walter S. Thomas, senior pastor of New Psalmist Baptist Church. He stood in front of about 2,000 from the congregation who brought lawn chairs and parasols to a field where the church's new sanctuary will stand.
The church - with a 7,000-member congregation, one of Baltimore's largest - is moving to a 33-acre parcel straddling the city-county line. The move is part of a $200 million effort to reshape the area surrounding its current home in the Uplands community of Southwest Baltimore.
That plan is to bring 1,100 apartments, houses and condominiums, most of them affordable housing.
The city is paying the church $14.2 million to move to the Seton Business Park near Northwest Baltimore. The new church is expected to be ready by 2010.
Thomas called the project a terrific opportunity for the city and the church.
"In helping the city, we were able to fulfill our own dream," he said. "There is a need for affordable housing that the working class can afford. ... This allows the city to provide services and build 1,100 homes. And it allows us to expand and to bring more people to the church."
Having outgrown its current space, the church holds three services on Sunday and one on Saturday night.
"The congregation has swelled," said Patrick Johnson, a youth adviser who has attended the church for 18 years. "We actually outgrew the sanctuary a year after we moved in. This has been 10 years in the making because we needed something larger."
And don't even get started about the jostle for parking spaces, church members say.
Diana Fowlkes, a church member from Dundalk, said the lively music and empowering sermons, along with the dancers and artists, have kept her coming back every Sunday for the past 20 years.
"When you find a place you're getting fed well, you keep coming back," Fowlkes said.
"You truly get spiritually fed. People come in from being run down every day, and he gives you guidance," she added, referring to Thomas.
