Hear, Ye! Hear, Ye! Throughout the centuries those are the words that town criers have shouted to get people’s attention, with or without the aid of bells ringing and horns blowing. It signaled that there was very important information or some significant proclamation for everyone to hear. Well, we don’t have old-fashioned town criers anymore, but we do have an important proclamation to make.
Starting this month, October of 2006, and carrying on through October of 2007 St. Paul’s Church will be celebrating our 300th anniversary!
Just imagine what it was like, here, in North Kingstown 300 years ago compared to life nowadays! Most people walked or rode their horses or wagons to get around. Oxen and ox carts pulled exceptionally heavy loads. Kids were milking the cows and picking eggs out of the chicken coop. Men were splitting wood for winter’s fuel and hunting to provide meat for the table. Fish would be smoked or heavily salted to preserve it for later. Women were pickling late summer vegetables and preserving fruit, while they waited for the day’s bread dough to rise. The roads between the plantations were all dirt. Wickford was just a fledgling village for fishermen, and it would certainly be the full day trip to Providence that locals still seem to think it is today.
So much of that has changed or completely gone. Gone are most of the buildings from 1706. Gone are the plantations. Gone are the oxen and ox carts. Most people don’t walk many places, and if they ride horses at all it’s for recreation and not necessity. Gone are all but a handful of dirt roads or many people who milk their own cows, gather their own eggs, kill their own meat, pickle their own vegetables or bake their own bread. The lifestyles of the people of North Kingstown have changed enormously in 300 years.
But St. Paul’s is still here – 300 years later. Admittedly, church services aren’t the only regular community social event. Sunday sermons don’t last the three hours that they did back then (more is the pity), and there is heating in the church nowadays. Things have changed, including the location of our first church building, but St. Paul’s is just as lively and well as ever it was during these past 300 years.
St. Paul’s Mission in Narragansett Country as it was first called began as an act of faith put into action by some of the planters, traders and other early settlers. They wanted to grow in their Christian faith and the strength of their Christian conduct. They wanted to strengthen their Christian fellowship. They wanted to worship God together on a regular basis. And so they met in various homes, including oftentimes Smith’s Castle, for fellowship, the reading of scripture, and prayer. They invited clergy from Newport or Boston to come and preach, teach, or observe the sacrament. Eventually their faith in God and their sacrificial stewardship of time, money, materials and labor not only built St. Paul’s Church (what we now call Old Narragansett Church), but also enabled them to support a pastor from England.
Originally it was a mission not only to the settlers in Providence Plantations (the first in the West Bay) but later also to a few native converts from the Narragansett tribe. And yet it’s perfectly clear the faith that those early settlers put into action has provided an enduring legacy for people over the course of 300 years – including us. Those early founders of St. Paul’s Church, through their stewardship, have given us a legacy of faith to live by, a place to meet, land to use, and an example of how to put our faith into action by giving of our selves as they did – 300 years ago.
Throughout this upcoming year we’ll be celebrating our 300th anniversary in all sorts of festive ways. The kick-off will be the Bishop’s Visit on Sunday, October 22. That will be followed, almost immediately, by St. Paul’s offering the leadership at the Diocesan Convention on Saturday, October 28, during the opening Eucharist.
Affectionately in Christ,
Phil +