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History of UUCM: Our Beginnings |  |
         
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 The first church building built in 1716 on New Meetinghouse Lane  UUCM’s second building which stood from 1831 until 1910, when it burned to the ground  Our Church today at 28 Mugford Street |
> Early History It was 289 years ago, when the UUCM, then called the Second Congregational Church began. The congregation split from the First Congregational Church, now called “Old North Church,” because Old North selected the more conservative of two candidates being considered for settled minister. A group of parishioners who favored the more liberal pastor, Rev. Edward Holyoke, invited him to lead a new church across town. Thus was born the Second Congregational Church of Marblehead, which joined the Unitarian movement in 1820 under the auspices of Reverend John Bartlett who served from 1811 until he died in 1849. Holyoke's Tenure Holyoke was an articulate critic of the old Calvinism of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a gentle, compassionate and enlightened leader. Under his leadership the church opened it’s doors and membership to women and to people of color. In 1737, he left the church to become President of Harvard, where he established the university as a bulwark of progressive religion and politics in the decades leading up to the American Revolution. |
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