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Dighton Community Church schedules public reading of the Declaration of Independence on Aug. 18
Summary
Dighton Community Church will host a public reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Church of the Lower Four Corners on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. The event revives a tradition started in 2012 and will feature Dighton orator Patrick W. Menges reading the text; a time was not specified in the transcript.
Dighton Community Church announced that it will present a public reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Church of the Lower Four Corners on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, the church’s presenter said in a recorded message.
The announcement said the reading revives a tradition begun on July 4, 2012, for Dighton’s 300th anniversary that the church and the town historian started. The presenter said the series of annual readings continued until the COVID-19 pandemic paused the events and that several of the early recordings exist. The presenter identified Patrick W. Menges as a Dighton orator associated with those recordings.
Patrick W. Menges read the full text of the Declaration of Independence in the recording included with the announcement. The reading included the document’s preamble — "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" — and the list of grievances and concluding pledge that the colonies were "free and independent states." Menges was introduced in the announcement as the orator who performed one of the early recordings.
During the announcement the presenter quoted Reverend Ezra Stiles’s diary as saying, "This I read at noon and for the first time realized independency," attributing the line to Stiles’s own diary entry.
The presenter invited the public to "Join us Again on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026 in the Church of the Lower Four Corners, Dighton Community Church," but the recording did not specify an event start time. The recording also noted that the church produced multiple annual recordings in the series; the presenter said one of the early eight annual recordings is included in the materials.
Background: the announcement links the local tradition to Dighton’s tricentennial observance in 2012 and to local historic figures referenced in the introduction, including William Ellery and Reverend Ezra Stiles. The recording and the announcement are framed as a civic-heritage event rather than a formal municipal proceeding.
The church's presenter encouraged residents to attend the Aug. 18 event; additional logistical details (start time, whether seating is limited, or accessibility arrangements) were not specified in the recorded transcript.
