Then and Now

Greenwood Community Church, Presbyterian

Terry Turnbull
Posted 11/20/14

Many of the early settlers of Warwick in the mid-17th century were closely associated with Presbyterianism and the teachings of John Calvin and John Knox. This is also true of the Greenwood Community …

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Then and Now

Greenwood Community Church, Presbyterian

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Many of the early settlers of Warwick in the mid-17th century were closely associated with Presbyterianism and the teachings of John Calvin and John Knox. This is also true of the Greenwood Community Church, Presbyterian at 805 Main Ave. in Warwick. Early settlers, such as Samuel Gorton, Ezekiel Holliman and John Greene, were also searching for a greater understanding of spiritual matters in the 17th century. So, too, were those who founded the Greenwood Church in the mid-20th century, and it is also true of their past congregation led by their pastor, the Reverend Stephen L. Clarke.

The early Warwick settlers had a strong sense of community, were very much concerned over the education of their children in religious matters and met in private homes. As we look at the history of the Greenwood Community Church, we find yet more similarities to the founders and early inhabitants of the town.

Greenwood Community Church, Presbyterian traces its history to 1942, when a number of citizens of the area began meeting with the hope of starting a Sunday school in the area for their children. The church history tells us that the impetus for this was during World War II, when there was an acute gasoline shortage. Because of restrictions on gasoline, travel was difficult and many Greenwood residents found it impossible to venture out of the area to take their children to Sunday services and schools. Fostered by this need, a number of concerned people in Greenwood organized an “ecumenical, interdenominational Sunday school for area children.” The realization that those who found it difficult to attend worship at their various churches could worship together in Greenwood.

The need was evident, and soon interdenominational worship services began later in that year. Those interested met in private homes as numbers increased in an American Legion Hall. By 1944 the Greenwood Christian Association came into being with a charter membership of 53. Many of these early members had affiliations with a variety of denominations and the quest for preachers and pastors that would appeal to them all began in earnest in 1944. In a relatively short time, the new church congregation decided to affiliate with the Presbyterian Church attracted by its preachers and the Presbyterian concept of representative democracy.

After World War II ended, Warwick witnessed a phenomenal growth. Thanks to the benefits derived from the G.I. Bill and other post-war programs, many young families fulfilled their dreams of owning their own home in suburbia. Along with this came liberal ideas on religion and a desire to find a church to complement their new lifestyle.

After a period of rapid expansion in the 1950s, the Greenwood Community Church saw its membership level off through the troubled and turbulent 1960s and 1970s. Many denominations in the city saw a decline in attendance due in some degree to a slowing down of population growth. Then, while the building of superhighway I-95, things changed in Greenwood. When a number of exits were granted in Warwick, East Avenue, a small country road, became a major highway as it connected Bald Hill Road to Route 5 and to Main Ave.

As Warwick became the retail capital of Rhode Island, not only did the malls, CCRI and the Jefferson Blvd. industrial complex benefit, so, too, did Greenwood Church. With easy access to the interstate, the Main Ave. church found its base for members increased dramatically. Those from areas of Cranston, East Greenwich and North Kingstown who had a preference for Presbyterian religious beliefs found Greenwood ideally located and open to their wants and needs.

During the 1980s and into the mid-1990s, the church had four pastors: Rev. Richard S. McCarroll, Rev. John T. Sandlund, Rev. Dr. Theodore G. Lilley and Rev. Dr. Robert J. Peterson. From 1959 until he retired in 1995, Rev. Peterson led the church through its period of growth and expansion of services to the community. For the 26 years of his pastorate, Dr. Peterson guided the church through Warwick's emergence into the modern age.

In 1996 Rev. Dr. Stephen L. Clark came to take his role in the church. Rev. Dr. Stephen Clark served for five years in an interdenominational and international American Protestant church in Bonn, Germany. This was before the Berlin Wall came down and when Bonn was the capital of West Germany. In addition to his education at the Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, Rev. Clark received his doctorate at the Gordon Conwell Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. Rev. Clark had been ordained as a Baptist minister in 1984, became a Presbyterian in 1990 and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1996. Pastor Clark feels that the relationship with the pastor and the Greenwood Church works both ways and that the support and spiritual help flows from the congregation.

The Sunday school, which helped found the church in l942, now has 160 children enrolled from "Toddler through Grade 12...The school staff includes 23 teachers, two co-superintendents and a music coordinator/leader. There is also an Adult Christian Education Program. Church members such as Wendy Petrucci, Sunday school superintendent, and Thomas A. Miller, director of Christian education, have made the program a success.

Today's church offers many services to its members, the Rhode Island community, to the country and the world as a whole. Those who belong to the church have enjoyed the music under the direction of Nancy Carlson Merritt, the young people's hand bell choir guided by Nancy Dickerman and the many excellent church picnics, hayrides, potluck suppers provided for by the Women's Association of the Greenwood Community Church.

The church, however, provides more than spiritual guidance and good fellowship for its own; it reaches out in a plethora of good works. It takes part in such varied activities as world relief, helping people in Haiti, the Philippines, the poor of northern India and a number of other world ministries. In Rhode Island the work extends to the Mitten Tree, which supplies outdoor wear to the Rhode Island Family Shelter, support for the House of Hope, the Ronald McDonald House, the Elizabeth Buffum Chace House and the Warwick Shelter, to name just a few.

Greenwood Community Church Presbyterian belongs to the Presbytery of Southern New England. The responsibility of the mission and government of the local church rests with the Session, which is comprised of the pastor or co-pastors, the associate pastors and the elders in active service elected by the local congregation. The concept of representative democracy remains with the church today as it did in the 1940s when it was founded.

The stories of Warwick’s Houses of Worship will be continued.

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