250th Celebration of the Meeting House

Name: 250th Celebration of the Meeting House
Start: 2025-10-11T10:00:00-04:00
Location: 75 N Main St, Providence, RI, United States, Rhode Island 02903

Schedule

Sat, 11 Oct, 2025 at 10:00 am

UTC-04:00

Location

75 N Main St, Providence, RI, United States, Rhode Island 02903 | Providence, RI

Roger Williams gathered the First Baptist Church in America in 1638. The church worships in a Meetinghouse constructed in 1774-1775.
Join in the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Meeting House on Saturday, October 11 from 10 am-5pm and
Sunday, October 12 at 11am.
The free and open to the public event features speakers, music, tours, and an exhibition of artwork featuring the Meetinghouse alongside memorabilia of uses of the Meeting House over time.
Saturday October 11th
10 am John McNiff (retired RW National Park ranger) as Roger Williams
11 am C. Morgan Grefe (Executive Director, RI Historical Society) traces the footsteps of Roger Williams from England to New England
12 J. Stanley Lemons (First Baptist Church in America historian) on uses of Meeting House over time
1 pm Lorén Spears (Executive Director, Tomaquag Museum and member of the Narragansett and Niantic Nations) and Charlotte Carrington-Farmer (Prof. of early American history at RW University) in conversation on religious liberty and its implications historically and in the current day
2pm Meet the artist behind two new paintings of the Meetinghouse turned into puzzles, Sarah Jane Lapp
3 pm Charlotte Carrington-Farmer on Mary Williams
Tours, exhibition, and music throughout the day
Sunday October 12th 11 am
Rev. Janet Cooper-Nelson (retired chaplain of Brown University) preaching, Roger Williams Family Association, musical guests

Music will feature Jonathan Sturm, We Built This House; Peter Fiore, Terribilis est Locus ist; and Stephen Martorella will play the Foley-Baker Organ.
Visit our website for details. https://www.firstbaptistchurchinamerica.org/a-celebration-of-the-building-of-the-meeting-house/