Okla-homey
2/5/2006, 08:14 AM
February 5, 1631 Roger Williams arrives in America
Being Sunday, its especially appropriate to note the arrival of the Father of the Baptist church in America. On this day, 375 years ago, Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and an important American religious leader, arrives in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/6974/roglandingwilliams8km.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Feb. 5, 1631, Roger Williams first sets foot on American soil
Williams, a Puritan, worked as a teacher before serving briefly as a colorful pastor at Plymouth and then at Salem. Within a few years of his arrival, he alarmed the Puritan oligarchy of Massachusetts by speaking out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Indian land. In October 1635, he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/3554/roger00100211to.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
After his banishment from Massachusetts, Williams was forced to wander in the winter New England wilderness. Encountering friendly Narragansett indians, they allowed him to shelter among them in what would become the Rhode Island colony
After leaving Massachusetts, Williams, with the assistance of the Narragansett tribe, established a settlement at the junction of two rivers near Narragansett Bay, located in present-day Rhode Island.
He declared the settlement open to all those seeking freedom of conscience and the removal of the church from civil matters, and many dissatisfied Puritans came. Taking the success of the venture as a sign from God, Williams named the community "Providence."
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/9801/rogrwill8fb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Williams monument in Providence. Founded by Williams, the smallest state also has the longest name. Rhode Island's official name is "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."
Among those who found a haven in the religious and political refuge of the Rhode Island Colony were Anne Hutchinson--like Williams, exiled from Massachusetts for religious reasons--and some of the first Jews to settle in North America, as well as the Quakers. In Providence, Roger Williams also founded the first Baptist church in America and edited the first dictionary of Native American languages.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8192/rogrifil1vr.gif (http://imageshack.us)
I've always thought the Rhode Island state flag was elegantly simple and beautiful. The anchor has dual significance. Apart from its maritime connotation, it is also used because at least since the 16th century the anchor has been symbolic of the concept of hope.
So, from a hillbilly who has been a Baptist since nine months before he was born, here's to you Mr First Baptist in the Western Hemisphere.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/582/rog0bp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Roger Williams died in 1687 and is buried in Providence.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1206/insane7zo2es.jpg
Being Sunday, its especially appropriate to note the arrival of the Father of the Baptist church in America. On this day, 375 years ago, Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and an important American religious leader, arrives in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/6974/roglandingwilliams8km.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Feb. 5, 1631, Roger Williams first sets foot on American soil
Williams, a Puritan, worked as a teacher before serving briefly as a colorful pastor at Plymouth and then at Salem. Within a few years of his arrival, he alarmed the Puritan oligarchy of Massachusetts by speaking out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Indian land. In October 1635, he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/3554/roger00100211to.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
After his banishment from Massachusetts, Williams was forced to wander in the winter New England wilderness. Encountering friendly Narragansett indians, they allowed him to shelter among them in what would become the Rhode Island colony
After leaving Massachusetts, Williams, with the assistance of the Narragansett tribe, established a settlement at the junction of two rivers near Narragansett Bay, located in present-day Rhode Island.
He declared the settlement open to all those seeking freedom of conscience and the removal of the church from civil matters, and many dissatisfied Puritans came. Taking the success of the venture as a sign from God, Williams named the community "Providence."
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/9801/rogrwill8fb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Williams monument in Providence. Founded by Williams, the smallest state also has the longest name. Rhode Island's official name is "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."
Among those who found a haven in the religious and political refuge of the Rhode Island Colony were Anne Hutchinson--like Williams, exiled from Massachusetts for religious reasons--and some of the first Jews to settle in North America, as well as the Quakers. In Providence, Roger Williams also founded the first Baptist church in America and edited the first dictionary of Native American languages.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8192/rogrifil1vr.gif (http://imageshack.us)
I've always thought the Rhode Island state flag was elegantly simple and beautiful. The anchor has dual significance. Apart from its maritime connotation, it is also used because at least since the 16th century the anchor has been symbolic of the concept of hope.
So, from a hillbilly who has been a Baptist since nine months before he was born, here's to you Mr First Baptist in the Western Hemisphere.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/582/rog0bp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Roger Williams died in 1687 and is buried in Providence.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1206/insane7zo2es.jpg