CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE IS AT 7 P.M!
A Brief History of the Church
The Second Baptist Church of East Lyme was founded in 1843 by 55 members of the East Lyme Baptist Church and 3 members of the First Baptist Church of Waterford. The church’s first meetinghouse was constructed that same year on land donated by Roswell & Mary Smith and Benjamin & Clarissa Champlin. The church building burned to the ground in 1866 and was rebuilt and rededicated on the same site with frescoed tin walls in 1867. The church’s name was changed to Niantic Baptist Church in 1889.
A baptistry was installed under the pulpit in 1894 and used for the first time that Easter. A tin ceiling was installed in 1907, electric lights in 1914 which were replaced by larger lights in 1923, and Hunt Hall was added in 1959. The 1938 hurricane destroyed the tall box cupola above the belfry, which was replaced with the current pointed cupola.
The Niantic Baptist Church has ministered to its members and the community continuously since it was founded, missing only two weeks of worship at the beginning of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic before launching Zoom worship services while the building was closed. In-person worship resumed in September 2020, and a hybrid worship service is now offered every Sunday.
In February 2022 one of the church’s furnaces burned up, broadcasting soot throughout the building and damaging the sanctuary’s tin walls and ceiling. The congregation moved temporarily into the basement for worship while a complete restoration of the sanctuary was undertaken. That project was completed in November 2022, and the sanctuary was rededicated on January 8, 2023.
The Niantic Baptist Church joyfully continues its mission to give visible form to that faith and fellowship to which God has called his people, working through Jesus Christ and ministering to the world by his Holy Spirit.
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HISTORIC GLIMPSES of Our Beloved Niantic Baptist Church
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