The organization of Congregationalists into a single statewide entity in Rhode Island began in 1802 with the formation of the Rhode Island Domestic Missionary Society. This group was closely followed up with the formation of the Evangelical Consociation of Congregational Churches in 1806. The first of these two groups became the Rhode Island Home Missionary Society in 1849 and became a centralized administrative group focused on the needs of Congregationalists within Rhode Island. The later of the two groups, which had a few names, but most prominently settled on the Rhode Island Congregational Conference, was initially formed to promote fellowship and communication between the ordained Congregational clergy of Rhode Island. The two organizations formally united as a single entity in 1912 while retaining the name Rhode Island Congregational Conference.

The Christians in Rhode Island largely belonged to one of two different conferences throughout the 19th century. The Connecticut Christian Conference was formed in 1821 and then in 1834 became the Rhode Island and Connecticut Christian Conference. The Rhode Island and Massachusetts Christian Conference, formed in 1837, separated from the Massachusetts Christian Conference to form an explicitly anti-slavery Christian Conference. The Rhode Island and Connecticut Christian Conference merged into the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Christian Conference in 1875. When the national Congregational and Christian organizations merged together in 1931, the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Christian Conference merged with the Rhode Island Congregational Conference to form the Rhode Island Congregational Christian Conference.

After the formation of the United Church of Christ in 1957, the Rhode Island Congregational Christian Conference became known as the Rhode Island Congregational Conference (United Church of Christ) after the Constitution was amended in 1963. Eventually, the name would become the Rhode Island Conference of the United Church of Christ.

A proposal for the Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts Conferences of the United Church of Christ to merge was initially submitted in 2016. On January 1, 2020, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ was formed out of the merger of those three statewide conferences. Offices for the Historic Rhode Island Conference were subsequently closed and by 2025 the papers and records of the conference were appropriately disbursed to various organizations.