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	First Parish Church of Dorchester, Massachusetts

The First Parish Church of Dorchester, Massachusetts was established by the emigrants from Dorchester and the south west of England who founded the town of Dorchester on 30 March 1630. The first church building was a crude log cabin thatched with grass (a granite boulder with inscribed tablet now marks the spot where it stood). As well as the church, they founded the first elementary school supported by public money in the New World. This laid the foundation for the American public school system. They also held the first town meeting which determined policy through open and frequent discussion, a forerunner of the American democratic way of life. In all of this they were inspired by the ideal of the Kingdom of God on earth and the attempt to realise this in Dorchester, Dorset in the time of the Revd John White. A printed guide to the First Parish Church says 'Theirs was the ideal and we inherited from them the task. We must never give it up.'

For a hundred and seventy-six years there was no other church in Dorchester, so for historic reasons the First Parish Church belongs to all the people, and retains a commitment to the life of the community. It is referred to as a 'Foundation Stone of the Nation'.

 The First Parish Church of Dorchester is now a Unitarian Universalist church. Its printed guide says 'Our traditions are Christian; our rootage is Puritan, our government is congregational; our theology is Unitarian; our achievements and loyalties are American; our concerns are humanitarian; and our commitments are independent.' Its website (August 2005) notes that 'The unbending devotion to the will of God, the courageous acceptance of perilous living and the stern adherence to duty of these men of faith and prayer have left a heroic heritage. May the faith and power that guided them still guide us through the coming years.'

Old postcard of Dorchester, Mass, showing church steeple in the middle distance

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