Set on Columbia Street in the village of Peace Dale, part of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, Peace Dale Congregational Church (PDCC) is an Open and Affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ where Sunday worship rotates through four different styles, four choirs fill the sanctuary, and the church's own volunteers feed more than 26,000 hot meals a year to local neighbors. Members call themselves Christian, Open Minded, Spiritual, Evolving and Diverse, and the building has stood on the same corner since 1872 - more than a century and a half of the same congregation gathering under the same roof.
Worship That Rotates Through Four Styles
There is one Sunday service each week at 10:00 am. The shape of that service changes with the calendar. The first Sunday of every month (and any fifth Sunday) is a Traditional Service with great hymns of the faith, choral music, and organ accompaniment - a worship experience that echoes through most mainline Protestant and UCC congregations, centered on gathering, invoking God's presence, hearing the Word, and responding in daily life. Communion is celebrated on that first Sunday, with the table open to anyone who wishes to participate regardless of membership, age, or background; the bread and cup are usually shared by intinction, and individual cups of non-alcoholic juice are used.
The second and third Sundays of the month are Contemporary Services: a multi-sensory experience in which lyrics are projected, and pictures, images, and video clips illustrate the sermon and special service moments. The fourth Sunday of every month is the Family Service - shorter, less formal, and deliberately child-friendly, with short skits, simple prayers, and Bible readings that translate easily into the lives of children and youth. Visitors are welcomed but not singled out, encouraged to take part whenever they are ready.
A Choir Program for Every Taste
Music is one of the defining marks of PDCC. Four different ensembles move in and out of the sanctuary throughout the year. The Traditional Choir, rehearsing Thursday evenings, leads hymns and choral pieces for the Traditional services, with new and well-known hymns chosen to integrate with the scripture and sermon of the day. The Contemporary Singers (the praise team), rehearsing Thursday evenings as well, sing SATB arrangements in popular styles - keyboard, drums, and electric guitar most often - chosen to frame the scripture and sermon in a contemporary idiom.
The Bell Choir, rehearsing Tuesday evenings at 6:30 pm, plays two- and three-octave music on Schulmerich handbells and chimes, performing in worship about once a month and on special occasions; eight to ten ringers are usually on the bench, and reading music is helpful but not required. Tricia Halloran directs the bells and is open to starting a beginner group if a few new ringers step forward. For people who love to sing but cannot commit to weekly rehearsals, the Once-a-Month Singers meet just one Sunday a month, singing with the Family Service after a single 9:00 am rehearsal that morning; lyrics and practice videos are emailed in advance.
Music Academy, Concerts, and an Annual Series
In recent years the church launched a Music Academy and Scholarship program that offers private lessons in piano and voice for beginners through advanced students, in 30-, 45-, or 60-minute sessions. A needs-based scholarship program is available for students who could not otherwise afford lessons, and the academy is open to learners of all ages from the wider community. The PDCC Presents concert series brings local artists and the church's own musicians to the sanctuary for uplifting performances that benefit both the music program and a selected charity for each concert. Music Director Dan Monte leads the program overall.
Dinner Table: 26,000 Meals a Year
Dinner Table is the church's flagship outreach. Run entirely by volunteers, the ministry prepares and delivers well-balanced, home-cooked meals twice a week - on Wednesdays and Fridays, with pickup and delivery running from 4:30 to 6:00 pm - to local residents who need them. In 2025 the program delivered more than 26,000 meals. Over 100 volunteers spend Tuesdays and Wednesdays chopping, dicing, cooking, packing, labeling, and delivering; many of them have been at it for years. Requests are typically scheduled a week ahead, and a waiting list is common. From September through May, the Tuesday evening Bistro adds a sit-down, community-style dinner in the church for anyone who wants a more social experience; reservations are taken by phone the Sunday before and guests pay what they can.
Tabitha's Closet
Tabitha's Closet is PDCC's clothing ministry: in-season, gently used clothing, shoes, accessories, and jewelry for the whole family, offered on a "get what you need, pay what you can" model with most items priced under five dollars. The closet is open Saturday mornings from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, and additionally on the third Tuesday of each month from 4:30 to 6:30 pm (September through May). Weekly specials such as seasonal "fill a bag" events make shopping affordable, and net proceeds are returned to the local community through Dinner Table and grants to area non-profits. Donations of clean, laundered fall and winter items are accepted during office hours (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10 am to 2 pm) or on Saturday mornings.
Pumpkins with a Purpose
Every October the church grounds become a Pumpkin Patch. A truck arrives from Navajo agriculture in New Mexico carrying thousands of pumpkins and gourds in every shape, size, and color, and members hand them off the truck in a long human chain that has become a community tradition of its own. The patch is open daily throughout October from 10 am to 6 pm, with pumpkins and decorative gourds priced from one to thirty-five dollars. Each October also brings the Pumpkin Palooza - a Saturday family party with music, white elephant treasures, hotdogs, hamburgers, baked goods, kids' crafts, an obstacle course, pumpkin bowling, and Tabitha's Closet open for the day. The Pumpkin Patch and Palooza together raise an average of $10,000 each year for Welcome House of South County, which has run the area's emergency and transitional housing program for three decades. The patch offers community-service hours for local middle and high school students throughout the month.
Green Team and a Solar Roof
Sustainability is part of PDCC's mission DNA. The Green Team - led among others by George Faucher and Don Hermes - has installed more than 100 solar panels on the roof of the education wing. Members of the congregation raised nearly $90,000 to fund the project, working with Rhode Island Saving Energy (RISE) and installer SolPower. The system was expected to pay for itself within six years and is estimated to deliver savings equivalent to taking 2.4 million miles of driving off the road each year. The team's Earth Day program in 2026 featured URI marine research scientist Dr. Barbara Sullivan-Watts speaking on offshore wind energy. Environmental author and activist Bill McKibben sent the congregation a video message of congratulations for the solar project. A monthly Green Life column appears in the church newsletter.
Youth Connect and the Family Service
Youth programs at PDCC span preschool through high school. On Sunday mornings, children begin the 10:00 am service in the sanctuary with their families, then are dismissed to Youth Connect, organized by Youth Connect Coordinator Meg Kolodziej. Preschool childcare is available during most Sunday services. The fourth-Sunday Family Service is built specifically for younger participants: shorter, with skits, simple prayers, and readings that land with children and youth. Year-round family events include the Pumpkin Palooza in the fall and the long-running Christmas Bazaar each December, with handmade wreaths and table decorations, a White Elephant room, jewelry, the Cookie Trail, homemade soups, raffle baskets, and craft vendors. "Mr. Bear and Hazard," two stuffed-animal friends who star in their own illustrated adventures about life at PDCC, help introduce the church to children.
Prayer Circle, Prayer Shawl, and Called to Care
Healing ministries are a quiet but steady force in the congregation. The Prayer Circle gathers every Tuesday at 9:30 am in the Community Room, taking turns leading discussion before lifting up prayers for the elderly, those who are ill, cancer patients and their caregivers, and anyone needing spiritual support, and closing with a list of joys and gratitude. All prayer requests are held in strict confidence. The Prayer Shawl Ministry - an active group of knitters, crocheters, and sewers - creates shawls, scarves, blankets, and prayer squares that are blessed before being given to the ill, grieving, or those celebrating; in 2021 the group distributed 216 items to hospice, the Domestic Violence Resource Center, the local police department, and children in a Providence school, and a recent Valentine's Day effort produced 200 scarves, hats, and gloves for Dinner Table guests and Providence schoolchildren. Called to Care, organized through the Deacons, layers cards, phone calls, emails, text messages, and home and pastoral visits from trained lay ministers onto the minister's own pastoral work.
Women's Fellowship, Church Family Life, and the Wider Community
Women's Fellowship meets on the second Thursday of each month at 10:00 am for devotions, conversation, and hands-on projects such as assembling Church World Service School Kits and Hygiene Kits. Church Family Life plans fellowship events throughout the year - the Summer Festival, Dine-with-Nine dinners, and seasonal celebrations. Adult Bible Study is on hold for the time being; those interested are invited to let the pastor know. Each month the Missions Board spotlights a different local non-profit as its Mission of the Month - recent recipients have included Habitat for Humanity of South County, the Jonnycake Center, the Domestic Violence Resource Center of South County, and PDCC's own Local Crisis Fund. In September 2026 that spotlight falls on Rhody Outpost, the University of Rhode Island's food and personal-care pantry serving about 80 students a week, the majority international graduate students.
The Social Justice Committee participates in a local ecumenical coalition of faith organizations and partners with HOPE Is On The Horizon on safe-playground projects; recent work replaced the playgrounds at the Champagne Heights and Fournier Estates public housing neighborhoods. Through the Rhode Island Conference and the wider UCC, the church supports refugees, disaster response, and the assembly of School and Hygiene Kits for shipment through Church World Service.
Five Guiding Principles and Open and Affirming Identity
PDCC describes itself along five guiding principles that are not a creed but an attempt to name the spirit of the congregation. "Christian" means perceiving in Jesus the divine qualities of love, peace, joy, and justice - and welcoming those who find God through other paths. "Open Minded" treats faith as a quest rather than a clutched certainty. "Spiritual" insists that Christianity is as much about the body and the heart as the mind, and that faith rolls up its sleeves to feed the hungry, care for the sick, house the homeless, and advocate for a more just society. "Evolving" means eager experimentation with new ways of being faithful. "Diverse" means celebrating differences of sexual orientation, ethnicity, class, ability, personality, and background, and welcoming everyone from conventional believers to curious agnostics and questioning skeptics. The congregation is Open and Affirming within the United Church of Christ, and visitors are explicitly told that they will not be asked to sign anything or join anything before they are ready.
A Peace Dale History Spanning Centuries
The threads of the church go back almost to the founding of the region. In 1668 a group known as the Seven Purchasers acquired the 300-acre Pettasquamscutt Purchase to fund the preaching of God's word; one of the seven was Boston Mint Master John Hull, whose daughter married Judge Samuel Sewall, who in 1702 deeded land on Tower Hill for a meeting house. The land passed through the Hazard family - among them Thomas Hazard, who transferred it to the meeting, and his grandson Rowland Hazard, who joined Kingston's First Congregational Church and, with his wife Margaret Rood, organized a Sunday School that became the seed of PDCC. Ten original members met first in the Hazard home, then at Peace Dale Hall. The cornerstone of the present church building was laid in 1870 and the building was completed in 1872. Margaret Chapel was added later in memory of Margaret Rood Hazard (d. 1895). The congregation formally became a Church of Christ on February 13, 1857, and was fully established with the appointment of its first Deacons on December 29, 1858.
The Rev. S. B. Durfee served in 1857; he was followed by a long line of ministers including the Rev. Dr. Lawrence A. Washburn (1960 - 1993) and the Rev. Paul A. Bizer (2002 - 2017). The Rev. A. Fred Evenson has served as Senior Minister since 2019. Today the church is governed by its members through an Executive Board and a slate of Boards and Committees - Christian Education, Church Family Life, Deacons, Missions, Music, Property Management, Stewardship - plus Finance, Nominating, and Personnel committees, with Delegates representing the congregation to the Southern New England Conference and the Rhode Island Association of the UCC.
Joining, Giving, and Finding a Place
Visitors who want to know more are invited to talk with any member after Sunday worship, speak with the pastor, or fill out a registration card found in each pew. The church office is open Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Financial gifts can be given online through Vanco or PayPal, by check mailed to 261 Columbia Street, Peace Dale, RI 02883-2491, through an employer's payroll deduction, or through qualified charitable distributions and stock transfers. The RaiseRight gift-card program (formerly ShopWithScrip) returns a percentage of each purchase to the church; cards for Amazon, Stop and Shop, Dunkin', Shaw's, Starbucks, and many more are sold after services on Sundays in Fellowship Hall. The Rose Window Society recognizes significant donations to the church's Endowment Fund, and the Birthday Club channels $1-per-year donations into the same endowment.