On Main Road in the Four Corners section of Tiverton, Rhode Island, a white clapboard meeting house has gathered people for Christian worship since the mid-eighteenth century. Today the congregation is known as Amicable Congregational Church, a self-governing church in the Congregational tradition and a member congregation of the United Church of Christ. It is known around the Sakonnet for its Open and Affirming welcome, its long-running Thanksgiving Basket program, and the ACTS thrift shop, which has been a community destination for a decade.
A Place for Everyone
The phrase that appears most often in Amicable's own words is "radical welcome." The pastor's invitation to newcomers, written by Rev. Maddie Foster, lists every conceivable reason a person might hesitate to walk through a church door and answers each one with the same line: "There's a place for you, here." The list stretches from single to married, divorced, widowed, or somewhere in between; from gay or straight, cis or trans; from filthy rich to dirt poor; from those with wailing babies to those whose pets are their children. "If you walk or run or wheel down the church aisle," the letter reads, "there's a place for you, here."
That welcome is formalized in Amicable's Open and Affirming covenant, which the congregation has held for fifteen years. The covenant commits the church to welcome all God's children regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, class, age, gender, marital status or family structure, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, and to invite all to share in the life, leadership, ministry, fellowship, worship, sacraments, responsibilities, blessings, and joys of the congregation. The church belongs to the UCC's Open and Affirming Coalition and turns up regularly at area Pride festivals in Fall River, East Providence, and Westport.
Gathered in 1746, Still Meeting Today
Amicable's roots run deep into early New England. The congregation traces its ancestry to the Separatists who left England for Holland and then Holland for Plymouth, hoping to found a more godly society. Their descendants settled in nearby Little Compton and gathered a church there in 1704. Settlers in the southern part of Tiverton made the long trek to Little Compton each Sunday for a long day of worship, prayer, and fellowship. By 1746, distance and growing numbers encouraged the gathering of a new congregation, and Amicable Church came to be.
The first meeting house stood on Lake Road near the historic cemetery at the junction with East Road. In 1805 a new meeting house was erected just north of Tiverton Four Corners. That structure burned and was rebuilt in the shape of the present sanctuary in 1846. The Lake Road cemetery remains in the congregation's care, supported by the Berg Cemetery and Grounds Endowment Fund.
Amicable is a mainline Protestant church in the Congregational tradition. Congregational churches have no centralized authority or hierarchy that can impose doctrine or form of worship; Christ alone is the head of the church. The congregation celebrates two sacraments, baptism and communion. It is a member of the United Church of Christ, a union of four like-minded denominations that have shared ministry and mission since 1957. Amicable is completely self-supporting and governs its own affairs by vote of all the members.
Sunday Morning at Ten
Worship begins at 10:00 AM every Sunday morning. If a visitor arrives at 10:05, that is fine too. Three ways to attend are offered: in person, on Zoom, and through the church's Facebook page. Recordings remain available on Facebook for thirty days after each service.
The church building has parking and entrances on both sides. Anyone who needs the elevator should park in the smaller north parking lot. The sanctuary and fellowship spaces are wheelchair accessible. Bathrooms are single-use and all gender. Families with children are always welcome in worship, and on the first Sunday of the month, children remain in worship with their families for Communion. Most Sundays, an all-ages Sunday School runs alongside worship. Childcare is available for all services, and everyone is invited to stay for Coffee Hour in the Upper Hall afterward.
Communion bread is gluten free. The building is an allergen-aware facility, with signs posted on or near doors indicating that it is peanut free; no peanuts, peanut butter, or peanut-containing items are allowed. Registered service animals are welcome to attend worship and other public events with their human companions.
A separate midweek worship service is held on Wednesdays at 5:30 PM.
Music and the Arts
Music has long been a strength at Amicable. The current Music Director, pianist Ilana Joyce Cady Zonicle, came to the congregation in the fall of 2025. She also holds a faculty position at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and serves as collaborative pianist for the Cambridge Community Chorus, and she founded the Free Concert Series in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Worship music at Amicable ranges from traditional hymns and choir anthems to folk, pop, R and B, rock, jazz, and musical theatre pieces, often chosen to highlight the social justice theme of a given Sunday. The Greater Tiverton Community Chorus holds its weekly rehearsals at Amicable during its performance season.
Children and teens regularly take part in services. Teens have created services of their own, including poetry slams, multimedia presentations, and musical drama scenes. Adults have joined in dramatic pieces on themes from spouse abuse to racism in the judicial system to the emotional toll of war. The Chace Music Endowment Fund, initiated in 1976 in memory of William N. Chace, supports music expenses, and a newer Bryner Music and Performing Arts Fund honors the fourteen-year ministry of the previous Minister of Music and Arts Outreach, Vaughn Bryner, who retired in 2024.
Faith Formation and Youth
Sunday School at Amicable meets at 10:00 AM during the program year and welcomes children of all ages together with their families. The Faith Formation Committee, currently led by Sarah Martin, oversees the program, and every volunteer who works with children and youth completes a background check and signs the Safe Church Code of Behavior.
Youth in grades six through twelve meet on Sunday evenings from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. They have taken part in UCC regional and national events, summer mission trips, and Earth Day and Climate Hope projects, including a 2026 finalist in the UCC Climate Hope Art Contest from among the Amicable students. The Garey Scholarship Endowment Fund provides scholarship gifts primarily to youth group young adults pursuing higher education or professional studies.
Special days throughout the year bring families together for activities such as On the Farm Sunday, Barnyard Blessings Sunday, Vacation Bible Camp, Advent Wreath Making, the Christmas Pageant, and the Mitten Tree collection of warm accessories for those in need.
Thanksgiving Baskets, T.E.A.M., and Hands-On Service
Service to neighbors is woven into the calendar. The Thanksgiving Basket Program has grown over three years from feeding about thirty-five families to providing Thanksgiving fixings for more than 125 families in the greater Tiverton community, with any extra food donated to the Old Stone Food Pantry. In 2024, the project helped feed approximately 150 families, or nearly 600 people. Volunteers collect, sort, and deliver food and non-food items in the weeks before the holiday.
The Tiverton Emergency Assistance Mission, known as T.E.A.M., is a fund administered by Amicable's Standing Committee that grew out of a collaboration begun by Rev. Bill Sterrett with other Tiverton clergy. Grants of up to three hundred dollars a year help individuals and families in Tiverton, or members of the Amicable community, with rent, utilities, and groceries during a crisis. Payments go directly to landlords or vendors, and inquiries are kept confidential.
Other regular missions include Holy Joe's Cafe, which ships coffee and supplies to military chaplains overseas, supported on the first Sunday of each month through a Coffee Hour collection; the One Great Hour of Sharing UCC offering in March for international mission and disaster relief; and Neighbors in Need in October for national UCC mission. The church has also been a long-time supporter of the UCC's Haiti Mission, which supports churches, schools, and a health clinic in Haiti.
Each February, the youth group hosts a Homelessness Awareness Sleepout on the church grounds. For more than twenty years, young people have built cardboard shelters, spent the night outdoors with a burn barrel for warmth, and returned to make Italian grinders the next morning to raise money for future retreats and trips. The December Giving Tree and Mitten Tree provide Christmas gifts and warm clothing for families in need. The Christmas Mission in recent years has supplied gifts to residents of Thrive Behavioral Health's Tiverton House, a residential program for adults living with severe and persistent mental illness.
The Thrift Shop at ACTS
The Amicable Church Thrift Shop, known as ACTS, opened in April 2016 and celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2026. It operates on Thursdays and Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, with the entrance at the back of the building and parking in the lower south lot. Shoppers find gently used clothing, jewelry, household goods, and unusual finds, artfully displayed by volunteers. The thrift shop contributes to Amicable's operating budget and serves as a welcoming face to the wider community. In 2026 it was named a Rhody Gem by the Bay Magazine. Donations can be left in the courtyard bin near the shop entrance or on the porch at the north entry.
Widening Our Welcome
In the summer of 2017, the congregation completed a major capital campaign and renovation to make the building accessible to all. A spacious front entry now opens to the minister's office, formerly housed upstairs over the chapel. Stairs lead down to Sunday school rooms, a conference room, a supply room, the thrift shop, and two renovated all-gender bathrooms. The upper level leads to the office administrator's space, a long hallway with seating and bulletin boards, an all-gender bathroom, the Upper Hall used for Coffee Hour and community gatherings, and the sanctuary itself. The renovation included an elevator.
The building has been designated an allergen-aware facility. Communion bread is gluten free, packaged foods at Coffee Hour carry ingredient lists, and homemade items are labeled when they contain any of the nine major allergens.
Getting Involved
Volunteers are the engine of nearly everything at Amicable. The Coffee Hour in the Upper Hall after Sunday worship is hosted by groups of friends or committees on a rotating basis, and open Sundays are listed on the church calendar. The Faith Formation Committee welcomes adults willing to share their time and talents with the children and youth. The thrift shop always needs help sorting, organizing, and stocking. Volunteers also keep the Sunday worship livestream running on Facebook each week. Anyone with a cell phone and a few free minutes can be trained to set up a tripod, log in, and click "Live video."
Other gatherings include the Grown Up Art Club on the last Monday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in the Art Room, the Thursday Night Book Club at 7:00 PM on Zoom, a Second Friday Fellowship that meets on the second Friday of the month, and a monthly speaker series on topics suggested by the congregation. The Kindness Cabinet, launched by the Amicable Cares Team in 2026, lets neighbors share what they can and take what they need, and the Make America Kind button project has now distributed more than five hundred pins neighbor to neighbor.
Leadership and Stewardship
Amicable is served by a settled minister, a music director, an office manager, and a volunteer Faith Formation Director. Officers and committee members are nominated by the Nominating Committee and elected at the Annual Meeting. The Moderator, Clerk, Treasurer, Trustees, Deacons, and members of the Church Council, Faith Formation Committee, and Nominating Committee all serve in elected terms.
The church is sustained by the pledges of its members and friends, by memorial gifts directed to one of seven endowment funds, and by the proceeds of the thrift shop and seasonal fundraisers such as the Summer Festival, the Holiday Bazaar, and the FarmCoast 5K. Stewardship is celebrated each October with personal testimonials and the dedication of pledges. The Friendly Messenger newsletter arrives monthly by email or in print, and Weekly Announcements keep the congregation informed of everything from choir rehearsals to community mission opportunities.
Anyone interested in learning more may stop by the office, which Sue Morgado staffs in person on Thursday mornings, or write to the church through the contact form. Sunday worship is the simplest place to begin: pull into either lot, walk through any door, and find a seat in the sanctuary. If you arrive at 10:05, that is fine too.