Throughout this year, our General Conference and the Council on History have celebrated the 350th anniversary of the founding of our Newport, Rhode Island church, founded on December 23, 1671.
As part of the celebration of that occasion, the Council on History has generated a variety of content to bolster and inform the celebration. You may have seen this content already throughout the year, either during out virtual Conference week in late July or more recently on our social media accounts, but in case you haven’t, we wanted to give you the opportunity to engage with the content!
The first group of material is a series of virtual tours of the history of the Newport congregation which you can find either on YouTube or at the Library and Archives website. These tours highlight important aspects of the history of the Newport congregation. The second thing available now is a panel discussion (on YouTube or SDBHLA website) which was held during the virtual Conference week pulling out major themes of the Newport church’s life for discussion by SDB leaders and scholars. A final piece available is a seminar from that same virtual Conference week (on YouTube or SDBHLA website) on the legacy of the Newport church with some reflection about how this celebration should push us forward in our continued efforts to actively advance God’s kingdom as a people.
We encourage you to engage with this content over the last few weeks of this anniversary year, and as we build to the anniversary shortly before the end of the year. If the content generates questions, we would love for you to contact the Council of History so we can connect you to important resources (including books on the Newport congregation and the broader history of SDBs) which can further your study and understanding!
