Memorial Baptist Church has gathered on Central Avenue in Seekonk for generations of Sundays, and at 10 a.m. each week the doors open on the same single service that sets the rhythm of this Bristol County congregation. Located at 340 Central Avenue, just a few minutes from the Rhode Island line and a short drive from downtown Providence, the church sits on a familiar corner of town and serves as a steady American Baptist presence for the surrounding neighborhoods. The Sunday gathering fills with congregational singing led by Music Director Scott Potter, prayer, preaching by Pastor Delphain Demosthenes, and a Communion table open to all who believe.
A Baptist Identity Rooted in Scripture
Memorial Baptist belongs to the wider family of American Baptist Churches. The congregation is formally affiliated with American Baptist Churches USA and American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island, and it also participates in the Rhode Island Council of Churches, the Attleboro Council of Churches, and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. That web of relationships reflects a church that takes seriously both its own Baptist identity and the broader ecumenical conversation.
The Statement of Faith lays out the doctrines that guide the congregation. Members affirm belief in one God who exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; in Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, true God and true man, the only mediator between God and humanity; and in salvation by grace through faith rather than by works. All who receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are born again of the Holy Spirit and become children of God, and the church teaches the eternal security of the believer. The Bible is held to be the inerrant Word of God and the timeless blueprint for Christian living.
Two ordinances shape the church's life together. The Lord's Supper is celebrated as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's broken body and shed blood, open to all who believe, and observed in anticipation of His return. Baptism is taught as a public profession of faith, patterned after the example of Jesus, and is performed by immersion. Candidates attend a pre-baptism class before the service. Baby dedications are also offered as a public testimony of a parent's intent to raise a child in the Christian faith.
Christian Education from Cradle to Senior Year
Christian education is one of the most carefully built pieces of Memorial Baptist's ministry. Beatrice Bleou, a corporate attorney and the Chair of Christian Education, oversees a program that runs from newborn children through twelfth grade and uses a modern, Biblically focused curriculum in age-appropriate classrooms. Every staff member and volunteer who works with children is BCI-certified, and the ministry maintains an open-door policy for parents with questions.
Teachers like Meghan P., a Seekonk resident and mother of two who has been attending Memorial Baptist since 2006 and was baptized and joined the church in 2018, bring early-childhood training and years of volunteer experience to the Sunday morning classrooms. The stated aim is straightforward: to lay a stable foundation of faith under each child and to build the walls of faith in every adult.
Teen Sunday School, for students in grades six through twelve, is intentionally different from a typical Sunday school class. Each lesson is taught individually and goes deep into Scripture, with an emphasis on the Bible as the inerrant, living, and relevant Word of God for every aspect of a teenager's life.
Youth Fellowship on Sunday Evenings
The youth ministry does not end at noon on Sunday. Youth Fellowship meets on Sunday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m., gathering teens in grades six through twelve for Christian fellowship, conversation about their daily lives, and teaching that stresses the relevance of Scripture across changing times. Guest speakers address topics such as handling finances, choosing a college or trade, and basic life skills, and often share personal testimonies along the way. The single principle the leaders stress most is the need for a daily, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Newly designed Children and Youth Programs run throughout the year for students in Grades 1 through 12, combining games, service projects, and meaningful lessons.
Music, Technology, and the Sunday Service
Music ministry at Memorial Baptist is led by Worship Director Scott Potter, who coordinates, rehearses, and directs all music of the church and assists the pastor in planning congregational services. The ministry's stated purpose is to support the sermon by leading the congregation through song and worship, exhorting and uplifting the body of Christ, and teaching the Gospel and the promises inherent in it. The music ministry is also a teaching ministry in its own right, reminding the church of the sovereignty of God and His faithfulness through every season of life.
Technology Director Jason Gray leads a parallel effort. A believer for more than thirty years who has served as a lay leader, deacon, and youth leader, Gray brings a background in electronics to the role and uses his knowledge to equip the church for ministry in the modern world and to help members navigate the technology around them. Under his leadership the technology ministry handles livestreaming, recordings, and the technical side of in-person worship.
Sunday services are livestreamed on YouTube, and recordings of recent sermons are available on the church's YouTube channel so that members and friends who cannot attend in person can follow along. Online giving is also available.
A Pastor with a Long Road to Seekonk
Reverend Delphain Demosthenes came to New York from Haiti as a young teen, graduated from New Rochelle High School, completed his undergraduate education at Nyack College, and went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Yale University in 2000 and a Master of Social Work from New York University in 2006. He met his wife, Françoise Hamlin, at Yale, where she earned her Ph.D. in 2004, and the couple married in New Haven in 2006. After two years in western Massachusetts, where Del worked as a therapist for the Friends of the Homeless in Springfield, the family relocated to the Providence area in the summer of 2008 when Françoise joined the faculty at Brown University.
Ordained as a Baptist minister in 1999, Del served as a ministerial intern at the Community Baptist Church in New Haven, an affiliated minister at the First Baptist Church of Bridgeport, and as pastor of the French-Speaking Baptist Church of New Rochelle from 2000 to 2008. He joined Memorial Baptist as an interim pastor in November 2008 and has been with the congregation ever since. His favorite Bible verses are Matthew 6:33-34, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness," and Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength."
Pastoral Care Through Every Season
Pastoral Care at Memorial Baptist is staffed by lay Christians and focuses on helping people navigate personal, marital, and spiritual challenges through Biblically based practices. Individual and group sessions are available by appointment, and the department's chaplaincy ministry provides emotional and spiritual care to congregants during serious illness, high-risk pregnancy, the loss of a loved one, homelessness, divorce, and other life-altering events.
The team also assists with funeral and memorial planning, performs baby dedications, and prepares candidates for water baptism several times a year. When a need falls outside the church's ability to help, the pastoral care department maintains a database of community resources covering food banks, professional counseling, and treatment programs, and helps connect individuals with the appropriate outside agencies. Some services are limited to church members due to the congregation's resources, but the team makes every effort to provide alternatives for nonmembers as well.
Men's, Women's, and Family Ministries
Beyond Sunday worship, the church runs a set of smaller communities that meet at different times throughout the week. The Men's Ministry supports men in their spiritual growth through Bible studies, prayer groups, retreats, mentoring, and community service projects, with the goal of helping men deepen their faith, build meaningful relationships with other men, and become better husbands, fathers, and leaders.
The Women's Ministry offers Bible studies, prayer groups, mentoring programs, retreats, and social events designed to support and empower women in their spiritual growth and personal development. The activities vary from year to year depending on interest, but the underlying aim is consistent: to help women develop a deeper relationship with God and live more fulfilling lives.
A Family Ministries program ties the broader congregation together across generations, while the Prayer Ministry and the regular Wednesday Bible study led by Pastor Del offer steady midweek touchpoints for anyone who wants to deepen in the Word. The Wednesday gathering is open to seasoned students of Scripture and newcomers alike, and includes the kind of teaching points the youth ministry stresses for teens, but applied to adults of every age.
Planning a Visit to Central Avenue
Memorial Baptist is located at 340 Central Avenue in Seekonk, Massachusetts. Free parking is available in the rear of the church, and visitors using Google Maps are encouraged to stay on Central Avenue rather than turning onto the nearby Maynard Street, since the building sits directly on Central Avenue.
Sunday worship begins at 10:00 a.m., and many visitors stay for the lunch that follows the service, a long-standing fellowship tradition where friends gather and new connections are made. Bible study with Pastor Del meets on Wednesdays, and Youth Fellowship gathers on Sunday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m.
The congregation offers online giving. From its years of Sundays on Central Avenue to its Wednesday Bible study, Sunday evening youth fellowship, and seasonal community concerts, Memorial Baptist Church continues to live out its stated purpose: the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ through public worship, the preaching of the Gospel, consistent Christian living, personal evangelism, missionary endeavor, Christian education, and ecumenical sharing.