First Parish Church in Plymouth is a historic

Unitarian Universalist Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present) ...

church at the base of

Burial Hill Burial Hill is a historic cemetery or burying ground on School Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Established in the 17th century, it is the burial site of several Pilgrims, the founding settlers of Plymouth Colony. It was listed on the Nat ...

on the

town square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

off Leyden Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The congregation was founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims in Plymouth. The current building was constructed in 1899.

History

Congregation

The congregation was founded in the English community of

Scrooby Scrooby is a small village on the River Ryton in north Nottinghamshire, England, near Bawtry in South Yorkshire. At the time of the 2001 census it had a population of 329. Until 1766, it was on the Great North Road so became a stopping-off po ...

in 1606 by the Pilgrims, a group of Protestant Christians. After they emigrated to North America in 1620, the Separatist congregation established a church in Plymouth which became a parish church of Massachusetts' state church, the Congregational church. Eventually, a schism developed in 1801, when much of the congregation adopted

Unitarianism Unitarianism (from Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there i ...

along with many of the other state churches in Massachusetts; the Congregationalist dissenters broke away to form the Church of the Pilgrimage. All state churches were disaffiliated with the government by 1834. The congregation is currently affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association and has 64 members as of 2016.

Buildings

Originally, the congregation held Christian services on the

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...

and then at a fort on

from 1621 until 1648. The fort was also used for other colony events including meetings of the

Plymouth General Court The Plymouth General Court (formerly styled, ''The General Court of Plymouth Colony'') was the original colonial legislature of the Plymouth colony from 1620 to 1692. The body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases. History The General ...

. In 1648 the first of four church buildings on the town square was constructed. Later churches were built in 1684, 1744, and 1831. Hartwell, Richardson & Driver designed the current Romanesque-style building, completed 1899, which replaced the 1831 wooden Gothic structure.Baker, James. ''A Guide to Historic Plymouth''. Charleston: History, 2008. , . The 1899 building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2014. It has Tiffany

stained glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

s illustrating the Pilgrim story. The sanctuary features carved quarter-sawn oak and is one of the finest examples of hammer beam construction in the United States.

Gallery

File:Burial Hill Fort in Plymouth MA.jpg,

Fort, ca. 1621, housed the original church in Plymouth File:William Harlow House in Plymouth MA.jpg,

William Harlow House The Harlow Old Fort House is a First Period historic house at 119 Sandwich Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. History According to legend, Sergeant William Harlow built the house in 1677 using timbers from the Pilgrims' original fort on Buria ...

, built in 1677 in Plymouth, made of timbers from the Burial Hill Fort, (meeting place of First Parish Church) File:1683 First Parish Meeting House in Plymouth MA.jpg, 1683 First Parish Meeting House File:1744 First Parish Meeting House in Plymouth MA.jpg, 1744 First Parish Meeting House File:Plymouth Meeting House 1831.JPG, 1831 First Parish Meeting House File:First Parish Church in Plymouth MA.jpg, 1899 First Parish Meeting House File:PlymouthMA TownSq 1910.jpg, First Parish Church in Town Square, ca. 1905 File:First Parish Church in Plymouth Mass.jpg, First Parish is at the rear, while the white church to the right is the Church of the Pilgrimage File:First Parish Church interior in Plymouth Mass.jpg, interior

References

External links

First Parish website

for the First Parish Church in Plymouth are in the Andover-Harvard Theological Library at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...