The First Parish in Cambridge
Encyclopedia
Harvard Square
Harvard Square is a large triangular area in the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street, and John F. Kennedy Street. It is the historic center of Cambridge...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. The church is notable for its almost 400 year history, which includes pivotal roles in the development of the early Massachusetts government, the creation of Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, and the refinement of current liberal religious thought
Liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
.
Site history
Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker was a prominent Puritan colonial leader, who founded the Colony of Connecticut after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts...
, stayed only a handful of years; he and most of his flock moved to Connecticut to escape religious persecution in 1636. Reverend Thomas Shepard, a significant leader of the great Puritan migration to New England at the time, gathered a new church, the First Church in Cambridge on February 1, 1636. One year later, Reverend Shepard used his influence with the General Court of Massachusetts to move Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
to Newtowne (later called Cambridge), a short distance away from his newly established church, so that the Harvard college students might 'benefit from proximity' to his evangelical preaching. The Harvard College Yard became the site for the second Meeting House, built in 1652, and the third, in 1706, and the fourth, 1756, all located in the corner now occupied by the college’s Lehman Hall.
In 1833, the congregation built the fifth and final Meeting House, which stands adjacent to present-day Harvard Yard. Harvard College held its annual commencement ceremonies therein for the next forty years. Five Harvard College Presidents---Everett, Sparks, Walker, Felton, Hill, and Eliot---began their inaugural terms there as well. The Parish House was built in 1902, and the interior of the Meeting House remodeled in 1914. The Crothers chapel was dedicated in 1941.
Governmental role
In the century following the founding of the Town of Cambridge in 1630, the whole community transacted the parish affairs through town meetings. Said another way, the townspeople were responsible for governing the area and for providing financial support for the Meeting House and the ministry. In 1733, the First Parish in Cambridge moved away from its close governmental governmental role and separately organized itself as a territorial parish. Within the town (which was considered a 'parish' after 1733), the church was a relatively small, covenanted body of those admitted to full communion. Such costs as the maintenance of the meeting house and the salary of the town's "public teacher of piety, religion, and morality" (who was also the minister of the church) were met by regular assessments on all persons domiciled within the territorial limits of the parish (unless exempted because they were supporting either Baptist or Episcopal worship). The power of the parish to assess the inhabitants for ecclesiastical purposes was abolished in Massachusetts in 1833. Since then, the parish has been a poll parish, rather than a territorial parish.Evolution of church doctrine
Throughout the 17th century, Reverend Shepard and his successors preached a Calvinistic doctrine. In the 18th century, the ministers moved the theology in a more liberal theology direction. Specifically, Reverend William Brattle and Reverend Nathaniel AppletonNathaniel Appleton
Nathaniel Appleton was a Congregational minister. He was educated at Harvard, taking his degree in 1712, studied theology, and was ordained on 9 October 1717, succeeding William Brattle as Congregational minister. From 1717 to 1779 he was one of the corporation of Harvard University...
amended their Calvinist preaching to encourage ‘free inquiry,’ and they held a tolerant and catholic spirit towards those who differed on doctrinal matters. Appleton's successor, Timothy Hilliard, was Arminian rather than Calvinistic in theology.
The division between Calvinists and Arminians, which appeared in many churches of the Standing Order in the 18th century, reached a time of crisis in the period from 1805 to 1830. The minister of the Cambridge church at that time was the Reverend Abiel Holmes
Abiel Holmes
Abiel Holmes was an American Congregational clergyman and historian in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He was the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and grandfather of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.....
, the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat...
. Reverend Holmes held to orthodox doctrinal views, but he remained on friendly terms with the liberal or Arminian party for three decades after his installation in 1792. In 1826, however, he decided to break off relations with the liberals, specifically abolishing pulpit exchanges with the liberal or Unitarian ministers.
After vainly attempting to persuade Reverend Holmes to return to his earlier, more inclusive practices, the Parish voted to dismiss him as its public teacher of religion and morality. By 1829, most of the Parish became Unitarian. Dr. Holmes and the more conservative members of his flock departed and founded the Shepard Congregational Society. In 1899, it was agreed that the church associated with that society should be called the First Church in Cambridge (Congregational), now part of the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
, and this church, the First Church in Cambridge (Unitarian)[now Unitarian Universalist].
The Reverend William Newell
William Newell
William Newell is the name of:* William A. Newell , American physician and politician, Governor of New Jersey and Washington Territory* William E. Newell , electronics engineer and author...
, the first avowedly Unitarian minister, led the congregation from 1830 to 1868. His immediate successor, Francis Greenwood Peabody
Francis Greenwood Peabody
Francis Greenwood Peabody was minister and professor of theology at Harvard University.-Bibliography:* Jesus Christ and the Christian Character by Francis Greenwood Peabody ISBN 0559603711...
, would become a leader of the Social Gospel movement. The fourteenth minister, Reverend Dr. Samuel McChord Crothers
Samuel McChord Crothers
Samuel McChord Crothers was an American Unitarian Universalist minister with The First Parish in Cambridge. He was a popular essayist....
, an eloquent preacher and widely read essayist, managed to attract a following from both the University and the Old Cambridge communities.
Present membership
Since the early days of Dr. Crothers' ministry, the town of Cambridge has changed greatly. Instead of being a suburban community, separated from Boston by an hour’s travel time, the town has become an urban center in its own right. The Cambridge church is to all intents and purposes a downtown church. Its membership fluctuates, as urban communities do, and its composition varies. The current church leadership, however, is committed to maintaining the witness of liberal religion, in keeping with the struggles of earlier generations.Notable personages
- Thomas Hooker establishes the first Meeting House in 1633.
- The General Court of Massachusetts banished Anne HutchinsonAnne HutchinsonAnne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
from Massachusetts during sessions held in the first Meeting House in 1637. - U.S. President George WashingtonGeorge WashingtonGeorge Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
worshiped in the fourth Meeting House in 1775. - Edward Everett received the General Marquis de La Fayette with an address of welcome in 1825.
- Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
gave his Phi Beta Kappa oration on "The American Scholar" in 1837.
Ministers of First Parish in Cambridge
- 1633 - 1636 Thomas HookerThomas HookerThomas Hooker was a prominent Puritan colonial leader, who founded the Colony of Connecticut after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts...
- 1633 - 1636 Samuel StoneSamuel StoneSamuel Stone was a Puritan Minister.Stone was born in Hertford, England. In 1620, he left Hertford to study at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from where he graduated in 1624. He was ordained on July 8, 1626 at Peterborough and a year later became curate at Stisted, Essex...
- 1636 - 1649 Thomas ShepardThomas ShepardThomas Shepard was an American Puritan minister and a significant figure in early colonial New England.-Life:...
- 1649 - 1650 Henry DunsterHenry DunsterHenry Dunster was an Anglo-American Puritan clergyman and the first president of Harvard College...
(interim) - 1650 - 1668 Jonathan Mitchel
- 1671 - 1681 Urian Oakes
- 1682 - 1692 Nathaniel Gookin, son of Maj.-Gen. Daniel GookinDaniel GookinMajor-General Daniel Gookin was a settler of Virginia and Massachusetts, and a writer on the subject of American Indians.-Early life:...
- 1696 - 1717 William Brattle
- 1717 - 1784 Nathaniel AppletonNathaniel AppletonNathaniel Appleton was a Congregational minister. He was educated at Harvard, taking his degree in 1712, studied theology, and was ordained on 9 October 1717, succeeding William Brattle as Congregational minister. From 1717 to 1779 he was one of the corporation of Harvard University...
- 1783 - 1790 Timothy Hilliard
- 1792 - 1829 Abiel HolmesAbiel HolmesAbiel Holmes was an American Congregational clergyman and historian in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He was the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and grandfather of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.....
- 1830 - 1868 William Newell
- 1874 - 1879 Francis G. Peabody
- 1882 - 1893 Edward H. Hall
- 1894 - 1927 Samuel M. Crothers
- 1928 - 1934 Ralph E. Bailey
- 1935 - 1944 Leslie T. Pennington
- 1945 - 1958 Wilburn B. Miller
- 1959 - 1977 Ralph N. Helverson
- 1978 - 1987 Edwin A. Lane
- 1989 - 2006 Thomas J. S. Mikelson
- 1997 - 2007 Jory Agate
- 2008–present Fred SmallFred SmallFrederick Emerson Small , known publicly as Fred Small, is an American singer-songwriter. He is also a lawyer and a Unitarian Universalist minister. His songs often make a political or ethical statement. Among his best-known songs are "Heart of the Appaloosa," "Everything Possible," "Peace Is",...