A Sacred Place on Sacred Land
Florence Congregational Church sits on Pine Street in Florence, a village of Northampton, Massachusetts, where the Connecticut River bends through a valley the Nipmuc people knew as Norwottuck or Nonotuck. The congregation names that history plainly: "This valley of abundance, where the Connecticut river bends, is known as Norwottuck or Nonotuck among the Nipmuc peoples who inhabited the land when colonizers first began arriving in search of both religious freedom and material prosperity."
The same pines that once shaded informal worship gatherings on Sundays with fair weather gave Pine Street its name, and those same trees were a gathering place for abolitionists like Sojourner Truth, William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass. The site of the church has always been one where, "despite the history of violence and subjugation of the land's original peoples, the dignity of every person has been proclaimed as sacred."
Founded in the Year the War Began
FCC began informally in the 1850s, meeting under the great pine trees on Sundays with nice weather. In 1861, as the Civil War began, Florence Congregational Church officially gathered for its first services in the midst of the utopian village of Florence, Massachusetts. Members coming from nine different denominations soon built a sanctuary and parish hall.
Several founding members had left other churches "in frustration over those churches' lack of decisive action on the slavery issue." The congregation believes the church served as a stop on the Underground Railroad; a trapdoor in the narthex closely resembles the secret doors in nearby buildings confirmed to be Railroad sites.
FCC included women as full voting members from its inception. And, "for as far back as anyone can remember, all people have been welcomed to participate in Communion if they so desired." In the Congregational tradition, the local gathered community is in charge of its own approaches to worship, prayer, and theology, a conviction that has shaped FCC's willingness to ask fresh questions in every generation.
The Restart and the Bombyx Partnership
Like so many churches, FCC's heyday was in the mid-twentieth century, and the congregation has slowly declined since then. By the 2010s, maintaining the building had become difficult and the congregation was shrinking, so the church began looking for a partner who would allow it to remain while making fuller use of the property.
In 2022, amidst the pandemic, Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity began managing the building and hosting events. The arrangement has brought new life to 130 Pine Street. Bombyx has filled the building with resident arts groups, including two choruses, a brass ensemble, and a taiko ensemble, and has added weekly art classes and monthly soundbath events to the calendar. Conferences, art shows, community events, and festivals now take place in the same rooms where worship once happened, along with private rentals for families and organizations.
The partnership restores 130 Pine Street, the congregation writes, "to its original, community-focused, multiple-use existence." It also makes the building "eligible for the funding necessary for bringing a historic property up to modern code. Without our partnership with Bombyx, we would not be able to renovate the church for broader community use."
Since 1998, the building has also been home to Beit Ahavah, the Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton, and the two congregations have shared space and collaborated in service since that time. The annual MLK Day Service Fair, for instance, is co-organized by Florence Congregational Church, Bombyx, and Beit Ahavah. Cloverdale Preschool is also a partner organization.
The arrival of Bombyx coincided with a deliberate shift inside the church. In November 2022, the congregation called Rev. Dr. Marisa Egerstrom to lead "a transformation of some kind." At a challenging annual meeting in May 2023, members voted to proceed with a "parallel restart": the existing congregation continues to meet while resources and attention are focused on building a new, more sustainable community alongside it. A restart, rather than a "revitalization," is a specific effort by a church that has reached the end of its natural life cycle to begin anew, differently, with different people. FCC's version, paired with Bombyx's eventual ownership of the building, also means creating a new model driven by programming rather than by rental income.
An Invitation from Pastor Marisa
Rev. Dr. Marisa Egerstrom, the church's senior minister, has made the restart's philosophy public in a long, personal letter on the church's site. She came of age after 9/11 and watched Christian concepts "mobilized in support of the absolute annihilation of entire nations." She studied the legacies of the Puritans on American government and culture, earned a Master of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, was ordained an Episcopal priest in 2017, and completed a PhD in American Studies in 2021, examining religious abuses at Guantanamo Bay as part of her doctoral work on the use of military torture as a means of extending unchecked American executive power.
She is a trained spiritual director through Still Harbor in Boston and created the Protest Chaplains during the Occupy movement, an effort that sparked what she calls "the now-widespread 'movement chaplaincy' approach to interfaith spiritual care in protest."
Her letter is direct: "If you're suspicious of church and creepy motives, then you're exactly who I want to collaborate with." She insists that faith is larger than belief, that "the God you don't believe in is probably not a God I believe in either," and that the next Reformation will come from those who salvage what is good, useful, and true from two thousand years of tradition and leave aside the rest.
Worship on Sundays
The result is a worship calendar unlike most Protestant churches. FCC holds two Sunday services a month at 4 p.m., one a relatively recognizable Communion service and the other a more experimental, workshop-like experience.
The Communion service is held in the sanctuary, on the stage and altar, led by Rev. Dr. Marisa Egerstrom. It is traditional enough for those who want a recognizable form of worship and an open table for those who want to participate; Communion has been open to all who desire it for as far back as anyone in the church can remember.
On the off-Sundays, the Music Room (on the right side of the building) becomes the setting for "How to Pray: Sunday Series." Each gathering looks at teachings on prayer, ancient and modern, explores the difference between piety and devotion, and tries out praying together in different ways. The series is described as "a supportive, exploratory, nonjudgmental vibe," and the invitation is plain: "Belief is not a requirement - only curiosity."
Sacred Reading, Deep Church, and the Practical Spirituality Series
Alongside the Sunday rhythm, FCC runs occasional four-week Sacred Reading courses for adults. The first, "Prophets Ancient and Modern," reads modern writers such as James Baldwin, Simone Weil, Howard Thurman, and Ada María Isasi-Díaz alongside biblical prophets on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 7:30 p.m., on a sliding scale of $100 to $150. A second, "Sacred Reading: Mary Magdalene," meets around July 22, Mary Magdalene's feast day, and reads passages from the Gospel of Mary.
There are also experimental services that grow out of the Practical Spirituality workshops. "Deep Church" uses sonic meditation techniques drawn from Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening methods. The March 1 gathering, for example, used Deep Listening practices as a way into approaching the bread and grape juice ritual "more communally - a spiritual understanding that would have been closer to what Jesus and his friends would have taken for granted as understood."
FCC's Practical Spirituality Series brings in teachers from outside the Christian tradition. The Sufi-Buddhist Fusion Soundbath pairs violinist Carson Marshall with Sufi vocalist Umer Piracha for an evening "equally grounded in their respective musical traditions and spiritual lineages, AND inviting seekers of all backgrounds to draw from the richness of Buddhist meditation and Sufi Qawwali." A "Yearnings" concert pairs singers from Black, Hindu, Jewish, Native American, and Sufi traditions with an all-star local band. The church is a Card to Culture participant, making reduced-price tickets available to EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders.
The Bombyx Fellows Program
The most structured part of the restart is the Bombyx Fellows Program, a nine-month cohort that meets two evenings a month from September through May, with dinner included. Each evening opens with a check-in round, then moves into a workshop or reflective activity organized around three themes: Ritual, Vocation, and Community.
The program is for people who "sense that 'trying harder' isn't getting you anywhere," who wish their days had room for something besides the grind, who feel disconnected from land or ancestors in ways they can't quite name, who are curious about spirituality but not looking to join a religion, and who are seeking community that is more about curiosity than correctness.
It costs $150 a month, subsidized by grants from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and gifts from supporters. There are no credits, certificates, diplomas, or credentials of any kind. The church is clear: "It is not a clinical intervention; it won't get rid of your trauma." Think of it as a leadership development program, a guided wilderness expedition, or a coaching intensive centered on spirituality, embodiment, and connection. Rev. Dr. Egerstrom directs the program.
Sunday Supper and the Holiday Calendar
Monthly on Sunday evenings at 5:30 p.m., the church hosts Sunday Supper & Spirit, a community potluck that doubles as a way for neighbors to meet. Potluck suggestions rotate by the first letter of your last name: one month you might bring a side dish, the next a dessert. Conversation starters sit on each table so no one has to figure out what to say. Sometimes the supper takes on a specific aim, as it did in November 2025 when it doubled as a food drive for the Survival Center.
Once a year, FCC joins Beit Ahavah and the wider community for a Community Chanukah Celebration and Latke Factory. Once a year, the church also hosts a Short Attention Span Christmas Eve service designed for families with restless children. The service combines traditional elements with movement and sensory experiences; candles still get lit and "Silent Night" still gets sung, and the invitation is clear: "Don't want to dress up? Come to a Christmas Eve service where you don't have to have it all together." On Easter, the church hosts a Community Easter Brunch Potluck at 10:30 a.m. followed by a Not-So-Sunrise Easter Service at 11:30 a.m., with all-ages crafts and a participatory telling of the story.
The MLK Day Service Fair
Each January on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, FCC partners with Bombyx and Beit Ahavah to host an MLK Day Service Fair. The morning is a "speed-dating" style event where organizations looking for volunteers have two minutes each to make their pitch. After the round, the floor opens up for conversation in the Peacock Room, with Wake the Dead Donuts serving coffee and their signature hot mini-donuts.
The 2026 fair drew about 100 people and more than a dozen organizations, including the David Ruggles Center for History and Education, Swing Blue Alliance, the Connecticut River Conservancy, the Department of Children and Families, Eagle Eye Institute, Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Jewish Voice for Peace Western Mass., Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity, Resilient Community Arts of Easthampton, and Young Scholar's Fund Inc. The fair is described by Rev. Dr. Egerstrom as a chance to "make connections before they are needed," so that movement moments have networks already in place.
A Building, A Village, A Future
FCC now sees itself less as a single Sunday morning community and more as an anchor institution in a multi-use building that includes a synagogue, an arts center, and a slate of programming that changes month by month. Members and curious newcomers alike are encouraged to start with a conversation. The church publishes an e-newsletter, accepts one-time donations through PayPal and recurring gifts through an online pledge form, and offers two clear doorways for involvement: the bimonthly Sunday worship and study calendar, and the Bombyx Fellows Program.
For those who arrive skeptical, the message from Pastor Marisa is unambiguous: "I am still convinced the answer is not 'nothing.'" What remains of Christianity after white supremacy and all the "-isms" is what the church does, together, with curiosity and generosity.