Ancient History

The earliest recorded settlement in Wading River occurred in 1671, and it is said that there was an early church in the area. No records survive from this period. The first regularly organized church appears to have been Presbyterian and to have been gathered in the early 1700s. A small wooden building stood on the opposite side of North Country Road from the present church buildings. It apparently had no regular pastor, but the records of the old Presbytery of Suffolk indicate that ministers were sent from time to time by that body to supply the church in Wading River.

The whole of Suffolk County was greatly affected by the Great Awakening of the 1740s. To quote from the records of 1901: "...[the Awakening] did great good. But in connection with it there was an extreme party who carried their ideas so far that they divided the churches... Secessions from the churches went off and formed churches according to their own notions. These "Separatists" ... among other things were Congregationalists and established the Independent form of Church government. After a while nearly all these churches ceased to be - all but one - the "Separate" Church in Aquebogue. This church remained apart, and from it sprang all the churches which are now Congregationalist in Suffolk County. This [sic] was in 1758. Wading River was the second of the Congregational churches and was formed in 1785 by Rev. Daniel Young, a minister of the church in Aquebogue, out of the remnants of the disbanded Presbyterian church, which formerly existed in Wading River..."

The earliest written records of the Wading River Congregational Church are from 1826. To quote from The Church Manual of 1837:"The first Pastor of the church was the Rev. Jacob Corwin, whose pastoral services commenced with them, November, 1787, and were continued until October 15, 1800... the successor to Mr. Corwin was the Rev. David Wells, whose labors, with them, were continued till September 12, 1821, when he was arrested by the hand of Death, and terminated his earthly course, after having labored 20 years in the Ministry."

Sunday School began in the home of Zophar M. Miller, deacon and church clerk, whose earliest minutes are from 1826. The present church sanctuary dates from 1837, when church membership was 140. In the early 1900s, the Church Parlor was added and remained the only addition until 1954, when the west wing was added to provide Sunday School space. A further expansion was soon needed, and the two-story east wing was completed in 1967.

Recent History
The history of the past 40 years is summed up in the fact that Rev. Louis Tuleja, Jr. accepted a call to the pastorate of Wading River Congregational Church in 1960 and retired in the summer of 1996. Rev. Tuleja came to Wading River from Harvard, Westminster Theological Seminary, and the experience of several pastorates.

Rev. Dr. Peter J. Vibert became pastor in September 1996, following a second-career pastoral calling after serving in part-time pastoral positions in Massachusetts. Educated as a scientist, he also studied theology at King's College, London and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.