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| Plaque on monument to First Baptist Church in Massachusetts |
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OUR STORY!
Our story begins more than three and half centuries ago in the England which was animated with the spiritual power of the protestant reformation. In the England of Cromwell’s protectorate, those who had been not only Puritan Separatists, but also Non-conformists struggled with the radical idea living as “visible” New Testament congregation. John Myles, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford went from Wales to London in 1649 to visit the Glasshouse congregation where he became an adherent of the Baptist point of view. He then returned to his native land and established the first Baptist congregation in Wales at Ilston near Swansea. This congregation grew until the restoration of the Monarchy in 1662 when Myles fled to the developing tolerance of the colony of Plymoth to avoid persecution.
In 1663 Myles, with Nicholas Tanner from the Ilston church, and five people already in Rehoboth who had Baptist sympathies, wrote our covenant and gathered themselves as a congregation. In 1666 these were fined by the Plymoth court for holding public religious services. The court in a most unusual response, did not further prevent them from worshipping but ordered them to go into a part of the wilderness “that did not prejudice other congregations”. With the help of Captain Thomas Willet, Myles and the Baptists founded not only the church, but the town of Swansea where the original founding covenants allowed those who lived there to practice either adult (believer’s) or infant baptism. The congregation, unlike other Baptists of the time, practiced an “open communion” to illustrate its observable tolerance of divergent religious beliefs. A third unique characteristic of our congregation at its founding was the fact that it was a congregation supported in some ways by tax money. It was an “established” church! Yet in its desire to be the New Testament church of its vision, it eventually revised this position and under its second pastor, Elder Samuel Luther (1683-1716) began to practice only “believer’s baptism”. The congregation, under the third minister, Elder Ephraim Wheaton (1717-1734), grew and flourished well into the time of the First Great Awakening. This was a time when the original covenants of this congregation played a formative role in the relationship between church and state that has shaped our laws even today. The story of this congregation contains events that embody the endurance of the American religious spirit In 1675, the congregation’s first meeting house was burned in the King Phillip war and the congregation scattered. The faithful Baptists have ministered to the town of Swansea through the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and all modern wars. It has sent people forth to found other congregations including the First Baptist Church in Canada and the Baptist Church in Warren where Brown University was formed. It has occupied four different buildings in five sites, the present building dedicated on November 9, 1848. Though it nearly disappeared in the late 1870’s, it has reemerged as a congregation that is vital, welcoming and ever true to its founding spirit of tolerance. It called its first woman pastor in the 1980’s We are now the oldest Baptist church in Massachusetts and the third oldest surviving Baptist congregation in the America’s. For over 340 years and through the ministries of 46 pastors, this venerable congregation has been the spiritual family of many faithful people striving to fulfill their understanding of God’s presence in their lives.
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