Community Corner

Baptist Church in Warren Continues 250th Celebration of Founding

The Rev. Tom Wiles of the American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island will speak at the Sunday worship service as part of a year-long speakers' series.

The Baptist Church in Warren continues on Sunday morning, Dec. 22, the celebration of its founding in February, 1764, with a renewal of its year-long speakers series. 

The Rev. Tom Wiles, executive minister for the American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island, will talk at the 10 am worship service. The church sits on the corner of Main and Miller streets – the highest point in town.

Wiles has served as a pastor and church administrator for 36 years. He was the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in North Platte, Nebraska, from 2004 to 2013 before coming to Rhode Island, according to the church organization's website.

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Before moving to Nebraska, he was the chaplain and an adjunct faculty member for Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz. He is a third generation Baptist pastor.

Wiles was educated at Oklahoma Baptist University and Baylor University. He plans to finish doctoral work in 2014 at Central Baptist Theological Seminary.

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Wiles is married to noted pianist Linda Bryant Wiles, who will perform in the church’s anniversary concert series next March. They have three adult children who live in Oklahoma, Iowa and Arizona, respectively, and three grandchildren.

Donations to the church are appreciated. They will go toward the Baptist Church in Warren’s Historic Rehabilitation Capital Campaign Fund.

The present stone church was built in 1844.  The original meeting house was rebuilt in 1784 after British troops burned the Baptist Meeting House and Parsonage in May, 1778.

The church’s location also is the place where Brown University was founded as Rhode Island College later in 1764. The Baptist church’s first pastor, the Rev. James Manning, also served as the first president of the college, which relocated to Providence six years later.


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