Looking at a map of religious preferences in the United States, it is hard to believe that Baptists in America started in New England. Today not a single county in the New England states has a predominance of Baptists. One has to look across much of the South, parts of the Midwest and the Southwest to find Baptists as the dominant religious group.
But New England was the birthplace of Baptists in America. The first Baptist church in America was started in Providence, R.I. Roger Williams, a former Anglican minister, fled from persecution in Massachusetts and founded the first Baptist church in 1639. The current building, erected in 1774–1775, is a major attraction for visitors, as well as home to the congregation.
Brown University, also in Providence, was founded as the first Baptist college in America in 1764. The first Baptist theological seminary in America was located at Newton Centre, Mass., in 1825. Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice, the first Baptist missionaries from America, both came from New England. Judson’s boyhood home was Plymouth, Mass., famous as the Pilgrims’ landing site. Rice lived west of Boston. Today his farm is the headquarters for the Baptist Convention of New England.
The first Baptist church in the South even started in New England. In 1682, William Screven started a Baptist church in Kittery, Maine. For a variety of reasons — some economic and some religious persecution — Screven and most of the members of the Kittery church moved en masse to Charleston, S.C., in 1696. They took their church with them, and it became the First Baptist Church of Charleston, the first Baptist church in the South.
New England is filled with Baptist history. That is why The Alabama Baptist is sponsoring a New England and Baptist Heritage Tour Sept. 29–Oct. 6. I will have the privilege of escorting the tour.
We will touch many of the Baptist history sites — Providence, Plymouth, Kittery and more. Special attention will be given to sites related to Judson and Rice.
We will also revisit the hallowed sites of American history such as Plymouth Rock and spend time at Plimoth Plantation learning how the Pilgrim’s lived during their first years in this land.
In Boston, we will walk the famous Freedom Trail and experience such famous American treasures as the Old North Church. Later we will travel from Lexington Battle Green, famous for its minutemen, to Concord’s North Bridge, where the shot was fired that was "heard ‘round the world."
The Baptist heritage tour will take us along the Maine coast from Kittery to Kennebunkport and from the Green Mountains of Vermont to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The areas are filled with mountaintop vistas, scenic valleys and creeks, picturesque covered bridges and quaint New England villages. We will see all of this and more.
No one can promise when the famous New England color will be at its peak, but traditionally the first week of October is the peak of color. That means participants ought to enjoy New England’s fall beauty while they explore their Baptist roots.
A special feature of the tour will be learning about what Baptists are doing in New England now. Directors of missions will brief us about how God is using Baptists today in their respective areas. At Northborough, Mass., Rice’s home place, we will receive a briefing about Baptist work in New England from state convention officials.
Participants will return with a new understanding of Baptist history in America and a firsthand look at Southern Baptist work in New England today. We will have experienced firsthand some of the iconic shrines of American history. We will have witnessed the breathtaking beauty of fall colors splashed across mountains and valleys.
So much more will be a part of the Baptist heritage tour of New England. I hope you can be a part of this effort by The Alabama Baptist to help readers learn more about their religious heritage and their national history and experience the beauty of the New England fall at the same time.
For information about the tour, contact us at The Alabama Baptist at 1-800-803-5201, Ext. 103. The e-mail address is administration@the
alabamabaptist.org. Or you may visit our Web site at www.thealabamabaptist.org.
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