A tribute to Victor Harold Burdick, M.D.

A tribute to Victor Harold Burdick, M.D.

Feb 20, 2019

Victor Harold Burdick, M.D. (1927-2015) “We are thanking you for the doctor whom you sent to us,” wrote J. Witness Mankhanamba. “It was a strange thing to see how he was doing with the people. He did not care how dirty they were, did not care how poor they were, but he showed his kindness by giving help to these poor people. Oh! God is Almighty, whom we thank....

Ethics, Theology, and Discipline of the First American Seventh Day Baptists

by Janet Thorngate Part 2 Fifth in a series of spinoff articles from recent research on the Newport, Rhode Island, Seventh Day Baptists1 The Newport Seventh Day Baptist covenant listed no tenets of faith. Once signed by the original seven, its pattern of commitment to a common faith walk and watchcare seemed to hold for generations, but very seldom were...

Ethics, Theology, and Discipline of the First American Seventh Day Baptists

by Janet Thorngate Part 1 Fifth in a series of spinoff articles from recent research on the Newport, Rhode Island, Seventh Day Baptists1 Their 1671 covenant pointed up the communal nature of a search for guiding principles: “seeking God’s face among ourselves for the Lord to direct us in a right way for us and our children.” It also acknowledged the dynamic...

Capitulating to Culture or Redeeming It? SDBs and Holidays

by Rev. Nicholas J. Kersten Director of Education and History The question of the keeping of holidays and festivals among Seventh Day Baptists is for some a matter of dire importance which points at the purity of our faith. For others, it is seldom given a second thought as they carry out whichever traditions have been handed to them. Given those divergent...

Meet our Stars and Join the All-STAR Team!

Meet our Stars and Join the All-STAR Team!

Oct 26, 2018

by Kim Merchant   One of the SDB Historical Library’s challenges, faced by many specialized libraries, is how to make our materials available to online researchers. In the olden days, researchers expected to travel to the library, pull out a card catalog drawer and rifle through index cards to search for their subjects. In these modern times, researchers...

Slaves or Free? African-Americans in the Newport Seventh Day Baptist Church

Slaves or Free? African-Americans in the Newport Seventh Day Baptist Church

Sep 26, 2018

by Janet Thorngate Fourth in a series of spinoff articles from recent research on the Newport, Rhode Island, Seventh Day Baptists1 There were at least eleven of them. Their stories hide in the records over a period of 123 years. Discovering them elicits emotions from shock and shame to awe and fascination—then admiration. Forty-nine years after the Newport...