Don’t forget the gift shop at the Roger Williams National Memorial (RWNM) when out shopping this week. They have the best selection of books on 17th-century Rhode Island/New England around, for both adults and children. They have also designed some great t-shirts, coffee mugs, and caps.
Here’s something to consider with your family this week: Why not plan a vacation to our spectacular National Parks before they get fracked and strip-mined into oblivion? The gift shop has passports for adults and kids that visitors get stamped at each park, including our own (see below).
Now more than ever we need to be reminded of the extraordinary thinking that led Roger Williams to create a haven for those “distressed of conscience” in this settlement he called Providence. His idea that civil authorities should concern themselves only with matters of civil order, and not those of religious belief, was unheard of. He most famously declared, “Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils.” (My favorite quote to my mother as a teenager. She finally gave up in light of more pressing “problems.” Of which see: The Sixties.)
Professor Edward Eberle of the Roger Williams School of Law wrote in Roger Williams on Liberty of Conscience, “In the writing of Williams, he made specific mention of ‘Jews, Turks, Papists, Protestants, pagans’ and others as possessing conscience.” That’s right, even us pagans must be left in peace. Eberle also cited Williams’s letter in the original language, “Florc’t Worship stincks in Gods Nostrills,” adding,
Official coercion “may make … a whole Nation of Hypocrites.”
Yah think?
Park Ranger Sparkle Bryant has sent out notice of winter hours coming in the new year during which the center will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Roger Williams National Memorial and New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park have announced winter hours of operation for their visitor centers. The memorial’s visitor center will be open to the public from 9am to 5pm Wednesday through Sunday from January through March, 2018. The center will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, as well as on New Year’s Day.
But it’s open now! Visitors can get information, brochures, maps, exhibits, and check out the new interactive kiosks and orientation film . . . and get some gifts.
The center remains open Monday through Sunday, 9am to 5pm, through December (but closed on Christmas). Go here for the regular hours of operation.
RWNM, 282 North Main Street, at the intersection of Smith Street, (directions)
