An Old Congregation Finding Its Way Forward

First Congregational Church sits in the heart of New London, Connecticut, where it has been since the mid-1600s, when it gathered as the first organized congregation in the town. In the late 1800s the church bell was used by arrangement with New London to call people to town meetings and to sound fire alarms. Today the congregation is a small, lay-led community within the United Church of Christ, and its members describe themselves this way: "Even though our congregation is more than 400 years old, our thinking is not." They treasure their history while asking what new things God is doing in their midst.

On a winter Saturday in early 2024, the steeple of their historic 66 Union Street church building collapsed. Rather than scatter, the congregation chose to keep worshiping together. They were welcomed into Hallam Chapel, a smaller worship space inside St. James Episcopal Church at 76 Federal Street, on the corner of Huntington and Federal Streets. The chapel entrance is the red door on Federal Street. Coffee hour follows each Sunday service, and the gratitude members feel toward St. James for sharing the space is part of the texture of every gathering.

Worship at 9:30 on Sunday Mornings

Sunday worship begins at 9:30 a.m. and is offered both in person and remotely through Zoom. To receive a Zoom link, visitors email the office at fccnewlondon@gmail.com. The service is led by members themselves. There is no installed pastor, so the congregation takes turns providing the weekly lessons, blending a Bible passage, a related message, and time for responses from those gathered, together with prayers, hymns, and Communion. Lay preachers and pastors or lay people from other denominations are also invited to share their faith with the community.

The service draws from a wide stretch of the Christian tradition. Worship uses both head and heart, embracing ancient spiritual practices, traditional hymns, Taizé music, the visual arts, various forms of prayer, modern translations of the Bible, and contemporary praise music. Religion and science are both welcome. Because the congregation is small enough for everyone to know each other, services often include time for dialogue and interactive prayer stations.

Communion is celebrated every Sunday, and all are welcome to participate regardless of faith background or membership status. The church's own language is that it "believes fiercely in God's radically inclusive love for all people, regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, or sexual orientation. Jesus didn't reject anyone, and so neither do we." The congregation has formally declared itself Open and Affirming.

A Faith That Trusts Love More Than Creed

The congregation describes itself as firmly Christ-centered, focused more on discipleship than on dogma. There is no single creed everyone must agree on. What members share is not so much agreement on certain beliefs but a common passion to experience and share the love of God through Christ. They journey together toward that deeper love through worship, Bible study, fellowship, and service to the community.

The congregation holds that members are not expected to agree on a single understanding of the Christian faith. Differences of opinion about theology are respected, and the community seeks to support one another in growing closer to Christ, as each person best understands him. The local leadership team sets the direction for the church, and the conviction is that everyone has a voice. Members are encouraged to find themselves "empowered with a specific vision of how they can minister to others, in love," with the church supporting each person in whatever form that ministry takes.

Worship is shaped by several prayer and study practices. Lectio Divina, the ancient practice of slow, attentive reading of Scripture, is used during services. Members have also been introduced to St. Ignatius of Loyola's prayer of imaginative contemplation, in which the worshipper enters a Gospel scene with the senses and the heart. Centering prayer and contemplative prayer are taught as ways to quiet the mind and listen for the voice of God at the deepest level of the soul. The church draws on the thought of contemporary contemplatives such as Richard Rohr, the Franciscan priest who founded the Center for Action and Contemplation, and on Christian mystics including Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, and Thomas Merton.

Rotating Lay Preachers and a Rich Sermon Library

Because there is no settled pastor, the Sunday message is offered by a circle of lay preachers, each approaching the lectionary text from a distinct angle. Sermon archives extend back more than seven years, and the recurring voices include Hilary Wenzel, Jess Wenzel, Jesse Wenzel, Anne Megan, Cathy Zall, and Rob Scala, with Mary Tillery, Sara Ofner-Seals, Carolyn Carter, and ordained Episcopal deacon Ellen Adams among the guests who have preached. Their names appear across dozens of sermon titles that read like a year-long retreat: "Contemplative Prayer," "The Good Ship Jeanie Johnston and the Power of Three," "Holy Spirit," "We Are Rescued," "God's Dwelling Place," "Transfiguration," "What Must We Do?," "Salvation," and "Faithful Action."

The styles vary, and the variety is intentional. One Sunday may bring Anne Megan meditating on the life-giving freedom of being known and loved by God; the next, Rob Scala walking slowly through the acceptance offered in the Parable of the Lost Son and asking how that acceptance changes the way a Christian regards outsiders. Cathy Zall has preached several times on the inner "plumb line" of love and on John 14's claim that the risen Christ lives in every believer. Hilary Wenzel has spoken often on parables, saints, contemplative practice, and the connection between science and faith. The result is that visitors hear a wide range of theological voices in a single year.

Older sermon videos are kept on Vimeo, and the most recent messages are shared as text, often with a written reflection that allows the message to live beyond Sunday morning.

Children, Bible Study, and Welcoming Newcomers

The church does not currently offer a Sunday School program, but children are most welcome in worship. Through the interactive nature of many services, the community strives to make worship meaningful and engaging for all ages.

Bible study is offered as an extension of the Sunday message.

Living With the Loss of the Spire

The collapse of the church spire at 66 Union Street shaped the congregation in ways that are still felt in every gathering. In a sermon titled "Faithful Action," written the Saturday after the collapse, Jess Wenzel wrote, "Like all of us here today, we have strong feeling for the building we lost at 66 Union St. I remember fondly coming in the back door, walking up the steps and entering that beautiful sanctuary." But the strongest memories, the message said, were not of the building itself but of the people: Dick Faulkner teaching the acolytes, Don Janse leading the choir, Deb Fountanata singing "O Holy Night," Dwight McDonald carving turkeys at Thanksgiving, Kent's Breakfasts, Barbara Jones and Helen Daughlin in the kitchen. "It is the people and the service to each other and others that I remember most fondly, not the building."

The move to Hallam Chapel forced the congregation to live out the truth that a relationship with God is more important than any place. As the same message put it, "Just as Jesus spoke about destroying the temple and not turning God's house into a market, I think we are called to allow God into our hearts and not give in to being tied to place. We recall Jesus' words in Matthew 18:20, 'For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.'" A retreat at the end of January 2024, the Saturday after the spire fell, was attended by enough people to fill a small chapel and to remind the congregation that its life was not in the steeple but in the people around it.

A Congregation of Many Voices and Traditions

One of the most striking things about First Congregational Church is the theological and spiritual range of its members. In a single sermon series, listeners can hear reflections on Christian mysticism, Catholic contemplative prayer, evangelical conversion, Buddhist mindfulness, the Quaker sense of the Inner Light, and contemporary biblical scholarship. In her sermon "Freedom," Anne Megan described her own faith journey, including the moment she first learned about Jesus through a Billy Graham crusade and felt that "God loves me just the way I am." In "Doubts," she wrote openly about questioning, "having been exposed to so many denominations, and watching how so many of us think differently." Cathy Zall has woven the work of Richard Rohr, Meister Eckhart, Pope Francis, the Buddhist tradition, and the natural-world writer Jeremy Lent into her sermons at First Church. Rob Scala has quoted Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Marcus Borg in the same message.

The willingness to hold these voices together is part of what the congregation means when it says it has no single creed. Members pray together, take Communion together, and trust that their differences are not a problem to be solved but a witness to the "roominess of God."

Music, Candles, Stones, and the Senses in Worship

Worship engages all the senses. Services include lighting candles, playing with stones, enjoying creation, singing traditional hymns, listening to Taizé chant, and praying with the visual arts. Photographs from worship services show members gathered around candles, holding rocks for prayer, and praying together in small circles. The aim is to make space for God in the body, the heart, and the mind at the same time.

The musical range is intentionally broad. Some Sundays are marked by the quiet repetition of Taizé choruses; others include contemporary praise songs; others return to long-standing hymns. The music is meant to support the sermon and the prayers rather than to perform, and members are invited to take part in whatever way feels natural.

Where the Church Meets Today

The temporary home of First Congregational Church is Hallam Chapel, inside St. James Episcopal Church, at 76 Federal Street, on the corner of Huntington and Federal Streets in New London. The chapel's entrance is the red door on Federal Street. Worship is at 9:30 a.m. every Sunday, with coffee hour to follow. Parking is available on the surrounding streets of downtown New London.

The church's mailing address is P.O. Box 322, New London, CT 06320. The office can be reached by email at fccnewlondon@gmail.com or by phone at (860) 443-8409.

A Church That Welcomes New People Enthusiastically

Members write, "Our doors are wide open and we enthusiastically welcome new people into our fellowship." The congregation is small enough that visitors are quickly known by name, and the tradition of lay preaching means the Sunday message is often prepared by the very people sitting in the pews. Those who simply want to walk in on Sunday morning at 9:30 will be met at the red door on Federal Street and welcomed to a service that ends, as it always does, with coffee and conversation.