Harbor Church

Harbor Church, or the First Baptist Church, is a historic Baptist church in the resort community of Block Island, which is located ten miles off the southern coast of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Harbor Church was organized on October 23, 1765, in what became the city of New Shoreham. Located at 21 Water Street, the church is a physical landmark visible along that section of the Atlantic coast.

Historic Harbor Church, American Baptist-affiliated, is perched on a high hill on the western side of New Shoreham, Rhode Island. The church occupies a reconstructed structure that was once the former Adrian Hotel. It is included in the National Register of Historic Places.
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In 1974, Harbor Church, along with other buildings in the Old Harbor Historic District in New Shoreham, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

History

Harbor Church is believed to have begun as early as 1662, when the first English settlers arrived at Block Island,[2] presumably in search of freedom of religion. These settlers met for services in individual homes. It was not until 1763 that the congregation was formally established. Four previous church buildings are no longer standing. The fourth building at the area known as Old Harbor had the first furnace on Block Island. With tourism, especially from May to October, important to the area, Harbor Church constructed a summer chapel with a pipe organ. This fourth church building, however, was later destroyed in a fire.[3]

The fifth former location of the church was on Chapel Street in Old Harbor. In addition to worship services, this building hosted such community events as school graduations. In October 1944, the church received as a gift the title to the Adrian Hotel,[3][4] a Victorian-style structure built in 1886.[2] Two months later, the church on Chapel Street burned to the ground. The congregation had little funding available to rebuild in part because of devastating consequences from the Hurricane of 1938. The former hotel hence became unexpectedly the sixth home of Harbor Church, with services held in the former hotel dining room. After the sale of the parsonage to raise funds, the cornerstone was laid in 1952, and the current sanctuary was added to the reconstructed seventh and current church building. During the 1970s, a pastor's office was established within the church. The current parsonage was formed through the restoration of several former hotel rooms upstairs in the church building.[3]

Church activities

Tourists often swell the number attending weekly worship services, which begin Sundays at 10 a.m. The church offers Bible study at 7 p.m. on Thursdays and a fellowship breakfast for men at 7:30 a.m. Saturdays.[5] In August, Harbor Church holds Vacation Bible School.[6] The church can seat up to 120 persons and hosts weddings, including couples from outside the community who wish to marry in the resort environment.[7] Harbor Church the second weekend of August holds the annual Block Island Arts Festival.[8] The church also hosts the Block Island chapter of the Boy Scouts of America.[6] The town recreational center operates in the church basement.[3]

Since 2009, the Harbor Church pastor has been the Reverend Stephen Eugene Hollaway, a poet born in 1952 in Japan and reared in Tokyo and then Nashville, Tennessee. He is a graduate of Princeton Seminary in New Jersey[6][9] and a member of the board of directors of the Rhode Island Baptist Heritage Center.[10] His wife, Rebecca P. "Becca" Hollaway, originally from Atlanta, Georgia, is an artist and a potter.[9]

Each summer Jim Wallis, the founder and editor of Sojourners magazine, a theologian of the evangelical left, and an advocate of issues of peace and social justice, addresses the Harbor Church congregation. He has long-term ties to Block Island, where he vacations to reflect and write. His wife, Joy, is one of the first women ordained as an Anglican priest.[4][11][12]

Harbor Church observed its 250th anniversary in 2015.[9]

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References
  1. "New Shoreham: Old Harbor Historic District". preservation.ri.gov. May 8, 1974. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  2. "Nomination form, National Register of Historic Places, Section 25 (Spring Street)" (PDF). preservation.ri.gov. May 8, 1974. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  3. "History of Harbor Church". harborchurchblockisland.org. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  4. Donald A. D'Amato; Henry A. L. Brown (1 June 1999). Block Island. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 35–. ISBN 978-0-7385-3869-3.
  5. The Harbor Light, The First Baptist Church of Block Island, Rhode Island, Summer 2009
  6. "Harbor Church". harborchurchblockisland.org. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  7. "Wedding Information". harborchurchblockisland.org. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  8. "Annual Block Island Arts Festival". Providence Phoenix. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  9. "Harbor Church". The Block Island Times. Archived from the original on July 24, 2014. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  10. "Baptist Heritage Center Annual Report" (PDF). abcori.org. February 11, 2014. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
  11. Anthony Pappas (April 1989). Money, motivation, and mission in the small church. Judson Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8170-1146-8.
  12. "Theologian Jim Wallis to preach at Harbor Church". The Block Island Times. August 10, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
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