18
November 2015 SR
SR
Historical Society
Rev. Nicholas J. Kersten
Director of Education and History
Life and Death at Green End
The congregation asked for help on a regular basis, and rather than provide it,
the SDBs of that era elected to withhold their support.
In between the lines of our history as Seventh Day Baptists,
many stories are hidden. One such hidden story emerged
several months ago when we received two requests in quick
succession about our churches in Rhode Island. The first
request was for a listing of all of our Rhode Island churches
for a religious history of Rhode Island being written by an
emeritus
history professor from Rhode Island College, Dr. J.
Stanley Lemons. After surveying our resources, our list was
comprised and sent. Soon after, we received a request from
a woman asking about the history of an SDB church located at
Green End, RI, which was not on the list we had just sent. A
church, which was not part of any of our church lists, emerged
from the research which followed — and a once hidden story
is hidden no longer.
Green End was apparently located on the sea coast near South
Kingston, Rhode Island. Geographically speaking, it is not far
from our other historic Rhode Island congregations, and had a
postal address in Perryville, RI. Perryville is located just north of
US Highway 1, between Charlestown and Matunuck.
The first references to SDB work in South Kingston are from
1825, when Elder Matthew Stillman stopped and preached
there as part of a trip through the area.
1
There is no reference
of a church beginning at that time. In 1843, the
SDB Register
(our publication directly before the
Sabbath Recorder
) records
the organization of the church with 13 members on April 9th.
The first clerk of the church was William C. Lanphear.
2
The new little congregation struggled from the outside with
two crucial things: pastoral leadership and associational support.
Throughout the remainder of the 1840s, the church seems to
ebb and flow with the involvement of leaders — doing well
when there was leadership help from other congregations, and
foundering when it was not supplied with leaders. By the early
1850s, the little group had grown to about 25. In 1853, the
Green End congregation reported to the Eastern Association
that they were endeavoring to build a meeting house. In
response, the association took up a collection and sent money
to help with the building project.
3
The building project seems to have been completed shortly
thereafter, early in 1854,
4
though apparently the members of
the church required loans to get the project completed. Once
again after the completion of the meeting house, the little
congregation begged for support in the form of pastoral leader-
ship. The Eastern Association had been supporting the work of
Henry Clarke to aid the little church. This aid continued until
1856, when enthusiasm for supporting the little church ran out
and the work ceased to be supported. In 1857, the Association
allocated $100 to aid in the hiring of a minister, but there is no
record of any pastor or leader ever being hired. The reports
continue in a negative vein from there, as the church failed to
find a leader. With the addition of the debt from the construction
of the meeting house, the church was even more burdened. In
1865, the Missionary Society sent a missionary to inquire after
the health of the group, but the town was quarantined for
small pox, and the missionary was advised to stay away. By 1876,
a missionary reported that the church had been “undermined by
Seventh Day Adventists,” and was no longer in fellowship with
Seventh Day Baptists.
5
Putting the remaining pieces of the puzzle together, it seems
that when SDBs failed to support the congregation, and deep in
debt, they reached an agreement with the Adventists to make
use of the building, providing they could pay the mortgage. In
time, as the Adventists grew and cared for the meeting house,
they seem also to have gained the trust of the members of the
Green End church. They ultimately sold the building to the
Adventists and became members of the church. In short, the
little church ceased to be an SDB church because it was neg-
lected by Seventh Day Baptists. The congregation asked for
help on a regular basis, and rather than provide it, the SDBs
of that era elected to withhold their support. That withholding
came despite the affirmation of the work at Association meet-
ings. There was much talk about supporting the congregation
at Green End, but too little action.
The lesson for us in this is clear as we once again focus on
church planting: talk is cheap, and planting is hard work for all
of us. If our efforts to cooperatively plant new SDB churches is
to be successful, we must move past affirming the work of
spreading the Gospel in committee meetings and into doing
the work of supporting with our prayers, our dollars, our time,
and our hands — the work of advancing the Kingdom of God in
Jesus Christ. We must do the hard work of training leaders whom
we can commission to go elsewhere and lead well. Local
churches will have to focus their attention to this in order to
be successful. If we fail in this, many more of our churches will
become “hidden” stories in the pages of SDB history.
1
Missionary Magazine, v2, i7, p186 (September 1825)
2
SDB Register, v4, i8, p30 (April 19, 1843)
3
Sabbath Recorder, v9, i51, p202 (June 2, 1853)
4
Sabbath Recorder, v10, i32, p126 (January 19, 1854)
5
Sabbath Recorder, v32, i45 p1 (November 9, 1876.)
