The Big White Church on the Rotary
First Congregational Church of East Longmeadow sits at 7 Somers Road, on the East Longmeadow rotary, where it has stood since 1875. Locals simply call it the Church on the Rotary, and the nickname is so common that the congregation's social media and livestreams carry it as a kind of secondary name. A fellowship of about 200 members, the church draws worshippers from East Longmeadow and the surrounding communities in western Massachusetts. Its members range from newborns to nearly one hundred years old, and its diversity of personality is held together by what the congregation describes as a shared rooting in the love of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.
The church is a member congregation of the United Church of Christ, affiliated through the Southern New England Conference, and has been an Open and Affirming congregation since a statement was adopted on January 7, 2018. That welcome is printed in the bulletin and online, and it covers age, gender, race, ethnicity, ability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression. In short, the church invites anyone who wants to explore a faith centered in Jesus Christ to walk through the breezeway door on a Sunday morning.
Since 1827, and on the Rotary Since 1875
The congregation's roots run back almost two hundred years. The East Longmeadow church was founded in 1827 when residents of the eastern end of what was then Longmeadow decided that the winter journey west to the older meeting house was too far in bad weather. They built a meeting house up the hill on Somers Road, and worship has continued in this part of town ever since. In 1875 the congregation moved the meeting house down the hill to its present location on the East Longmeadow rotary, and additions followed in 1930 and 1950. In 1961 the church joined the United Church of Christ.
Through every change, the church has kept what it calls the fundamentals of the faith. Worship is grounded in scripture, shaped by the congregational tradition of local self-governance and shared leadership, and is led by a pastor who is accountable to the congregation rather than to a distant hierarchy. The cornerstone placed in the nineteenth century and the flat-screen TV in the toddler room downstairs now belong to the same community, and the building, the congregation sometimes reminds visitors, is genuinely 200 years old in places.
Sunday Worship at Ten
Worship is held every Sunday morning from 10:00 to about 11:00 AM. Visitors are encouraged to arrive ten or fifteen minutes early. There is ample parking along the front of the building, in two lots behind it, and across Somers Road at the bank and energy offices on Sunday mornings, with reserved visitor spaces behind the church near the Somers Road entrance. The front doors nearest the rotary are currently closed because of a maintenance issue with the steps, so guests come through the breezeway door between the old and new sections of the building. Greeters wait there and hand out a printed program for the day.
The order of worship is printed each week and includes a Bible-based sermon, sung hymns, prayers, and responsive readings. The sanctuary is plain in the New England manner, comfortably holding about two hundred people plus a balcony. Communion, called the Lord's Supper, is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month, and all are welcome to participate. During the program year the bread and grape juice are passed in the pews; in summer and on special occasions the congregation comes forward for intinction. The music is traditional and sacred, drawn from a Chancel Choir that rehearses year-round and welcomes any singer in ninth grade or older, with attendance at rehearsals and worship kept flexible. A bell choir is being restarted by the music director.
The motto on the bulletin comes from John 13:34-35: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples." After the service, coffee, punch, cookies, and conversation fill Butler Hall near the breezeway, and newcomers find program brochures and welcome materials at both entrances. People are welcome to sit anywhere. There are no reserved seats, and the congregation is informal: come as you are.
Children, Youth, and Sunday School
Children begin worship with their families. About fifteen minutes in, the pastor offers a children's message, and the children walk down to the classrooms on the lower level together. From September through June, the church runs a Sunday School program for children in grades one through eight using Group's "All-in-one Sunday School" curriculum. It is a one-room schoolhouse model with two or three teachers in the room. A fifteen-minute Bible lesson gives way to learning centers with crafts, activities, and games for the rest of the hour. Class is usually held on the first Sunday of the month so that teachers can be in worship for Communion.
Parents with infants and toddlers are welcome in the nursery and toddler playroom downstairs, which sits across the hall from the Sunday School classroom. The service is live-streamed to a television in that room so parents can follow the service while their children play. A teacher in the classroom across the hall can help set up the stream if needed.
All youth staff hold current CORI (criminal background) checks, and church policy keeps two adults in the room with children at all times, with an open door and glass window. The classroom is open to parents who would like to sit in, and youth programs pause from June through September.
The Youth Group, open to children in second grade and older, meets once a month on Sunday afternoons or early evenings for food, games, discussions, and a service project. The 2026-27 year opened under two new adult leaders, Brianna Jackson and Harvey Chauvin. The schedule fills the first Sunday of most months: in-house activities, the CROP Hunger Walk in Forest Park, an autumn hike, an Advent food-themed evening, an Indoor Olympics in January with a pen-pal project for seniors, a rock-climbing or bowling outing in March, an Earth Day cleanup and cookout in April, and a spring trip in May that closes with a year-end picnic in June. Mission service projects, fellowship, and trips are built into the year.
Ninth graders are invited into Confirmation, run by the pastor, with the goal of making a personal decision to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to receive the privileges of church membership. Adult Bible studies and seasonal workshops round out the Christian Education calendar: an Advent workshop in December, a Lenten workshop before Easter, and other adult study groups led by the pastor.
Music Director Ghilyana Dordzhieva
The music program reflects a careful transition. The new Music Director is Ghilyana Dordzhieva, an organist and pianist with more than nineteen years of experience in a variety of Christian denominations. She earned a PhD in the history of music in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she also served as a researcher and associate professor at the University of Art and Culture. She began studying the organ at fifteen and joined the American Guild of Organists in 2008 after her family moved to the United States. She has begun re-organizing the bell choir and directs the Chancel Choir's traditional and sacred repertoire. Singers in ninth grade and older are welcome to join the choir, with attendance at rehearsals and worship kept flexible. Anyone interested in music at the church is welcome to write to music@churchontherotary.org.
Loaves and Fishes, Food Pantry, and a Network of Missions
The church reaches into downtown Springfield and the surrounding towns with a steady rhythm of mission work. The Loaves and Fishes program is the best-known effort. On the fourth Saturday of each month, one of four rotating church teams gathers at the building at 3:00 PM to prepare a meal - an entree, fruit, rice, and dessert - that is driven to South Congregational Church in Springfield at 5:00 PM and served to about ninety guests. The team is back at the church by 6:00 PM, and the cleanup is shared with the host congregation's staff.
Kensington School, a partner in East Longmeadow, is served in many small ways at once. Once a week during the school year, volunteers fill five grocery bags with staples - peanut butter, jelly, pasta, sauce, rice, canned vegetables and fruit, and cookies - from the church pantry, and five families selected by the school receive them. Twice a year, around Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day, the congregation fills bags with non-perishable food to restock that pantry. In July and August, donations of school supplies are sorted and delivered before the start of the year, sometimes as a check the school can spend on remaining needs. Throughout the winter, donations of new or gently used hats, scarves, gloves, and mittens keep children warm.
Other missions follow the seasons. A Warm Coat Drive each fall collects new or gently used coats, shoes, boots, underwear, and socks for the Springfield Rescue Mission. A Giving Tree at Christmas holds red envelopes with gift cards that members hang in the sanctuary before being delivered to the East Longmeadow Council on Aging, where the staff distributes them through the year. Toiletries and gently used books flow to the Springfield YWCA, which gives them to mothers and children arriving in shelter from domestic abuse. A Mercy Clothes collection gathers clothing and blankets for children in need. The Mission Committee gathers monthly to weigh these efforts against broader concerns, and the church supports UCC Mission Projects such as Neighbors in Need, One Great Hour of Sharing, Church World Service's Blanket Sunday and Tools of Hope, the Open Pantry of Springfield, the East Longmeadow Fuel Fund and Food Pantry, and the Springfield Rescue Mission.
Wednesday Morning Workgroup and the Garden Team
A faithful troop of volunteers handles upkeep of the building and grounds. The Wednesday Morning Workgroup gathers from 9:00 AM to noon on Wednesdays year-round to take on whatever the week brings: painting, changing light bulbs, setting up and taking down chairs and tables for rentals and funerals, and the parade of small maintenance jobs that come with a building of this age. Mike, Marilyn, and Dean are the people to ask, and the group is fond of saying that many hands make light work. New helpers are welcome; the contact form on the church's site lets anyone sign up.
The Garden and Grounds Team gathers weekly during the growing season to care for flower beds and shrubs across the church property. The team also organizes an annual Spring Plant Fair fundraiser that helps generate the income that keeps the smaller missions of the church moving.
Community Tree Lighting and Annual Craft Fair
Each December, on the first Friday evening of the month, the church helps host the community's Christmas Tree Lighting at the rotary. Santa arrives on a fire truck at the end of a lighted truck parade put on by the local Lions Club, joins the gathered families, and at around 6:30 PM flips the switch to light the tree. The whole company then pours inside to the Fellowship Hall for cookies, candy canes, and hot cocoa, and Santa and Mrs. Claus take time to meet each child while parents snap photos. Members of the church bake and serve for hundreds of guests; none of the volunteers are more anticipated than the Clauses.
Each November the church holds its Annual Christmas Collection Craft Fair, a juried craft show filling three floors of the church building plus outdoor space, with vendor applications available to download. Raffle baskets, jams, and a wide variety of vendors make up the day, and the fair is one of the congregation's largest fundraisers of the year.
Pastor Thomas Hawkins
The Rev. Thomas Hawkins serves as pastor of the congregation. He can be reached through the church office at pastor@churchontherotary.org or by calling the office line at 413-525-4121. Pre-marital meetings are required before weddings are scheduled at the church, and pastoral care is available before, during, and after the death of a loved one, regardless of church or faith affiliation.
Baptisms, Weddings, Bereavement
The church describes baptism as an act of thanksgiving, a sign of God's love and grace, and the rite of entrance into the membership of the church. Baptisms are available for people of all ages. Adults may request baptism by full immersion, which can be arranged off-site. The pastor is happy to walk any family through the process.
Weddings are performed as a rite of the Christian Church and as a celebration of God's blessing on a couple beginning a new life together. The church also hosts vow renewal ceremonies for milestone anniversaries and blessings for civil marriages. Receptions can be held in Fellowship Hall, which seats about 160 standing or 100 seated; alcohol is currently permitted on church property only for sacramental and worship purposes. At least one pre-marital meeting with the pastor is required, and couples are encouraged to call as early as possible. Weddings are not scheduled on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Holy Week (Palm Sunday through Easter), or Easter Sunday.
The church is available for visitings, calling hours, funeral or memorial services, and receptions in Fellowship Hall. Graveside and funeral-home services are also available, and the pastor is ready to meet with families to plan a service that honors the memory of the person who has died and brings comfort to those gathered.
Office, Forms, and Finances
The church office, staffed by Office Manager Cindy, is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM and on Fridays from 9:00 AM to noon. Summer hours run Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9:00 AM to noon. Visitors and members alike can fill out forms online: a Sunday School registration, a Youth Group registration, a volunteer interest form, a stewardship Estimate of Giving pledge card, and a secure online giving form through Vanco. Printable PDFs cover the Craft Fair vendor application, altar flower orders, and the CORI background-check form for youth leaders.
Joining From Anywhere
The Sunday morning service is livestreamed at 10:00 AM on YouTube and on Facebook. A library of recorded worship services sits on the church's YouTube channel, including full services, twenty-minute sermon-only cuts called "20-Minute Church," one-minute excerpts called "1-Minute Church," and the regular "5-Minute Church" sermon summaries. Weekly e-newsletters, archived on the site, keep members and friends in touch with the rhythm of the congregation. Whether someone drops in for a Sunday service, walks the Loaves and Fishes line on a Saturday afternoon, paints a hallway on Wednesday morning, or joins the livestream from a kitchen table, the welcome is the same one that the congregation has been trying to live into for almost two hundred years: "Know that you are welcome here."