The First Parish Church in Dorchester, was built in 1631 by the emigrants from Dorchester, Dorset and the south west of England who founded the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts on March 30, 1630.
The first church building was an crude log cabin thatched with grass. As well as the church, the Puritans founded the first elementary school supported by public money in the New World. They held the first town meeting at the church, which determined policy through open and frequent discussion. In all of this they were inspired by the ideal of the Kingdom of God on earth and the attempt to realize this in England in the time of the Rev. John White. The church is referred to as a 'Foundation Stone of the Nation".
The First Parish Church of Dorchester is now a Unitarian Universalist church.
Famous quotes containing the words parish and/or church:
“When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls, and the stars begin to flicker in the sky,”
—Mitchell Parish (1901–1993)
“[Christianity] endeavors equally to establish these two things: that God has set up in the Church visible signs to make himself known to those who should seek him sincerely, and that he has nevertheless so disguised them that he will only be perceived by those who seek him with all their heart.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)