A Brief History of:

The First Congregational Church of Chicopee, Massachusetts, was the first settled church in what would eventually grow into the booming industrial, farming, and mill city of Chicopee. Two hundred fifty years ago, forty-nine Chicopee men petitioned the First Congregational Church of Springfield, proposing the establishment of a separate church in Chicopee as a Fifth Parish of Springfield. When their petition was denied, they took the case to the Massachusetts General Court, which granted them the right to build. In 1751, forty men entered the woods and cut the timber required to build Chicopee’s very first meeting house (Hamill 1976, 3).

As the church grew, on May 12, 1824, the cornerstone of our present building was laid. The work was completed in 1826, and a grand celebration was held on January 4^th of that year. The new and present building is a beautiful, typical New England white Congregational Church, with a balcony above the narthex, choir lofts on the first floor, to the left and right of the pulpit, and a steeple flanked by a huge fish-shaped weathervane. Some say that this new meetinghouse was part of the underground railway that ran through Chicopee during the days of the Civil War.

According to our by-laws, the First Congregational Church of Chicopee was established to provide a fellowship community within the city of Chicopee, and to provide the spiritual well-being of its members. The church is an independent ecclesiastical body in matters of doctrine, order, discipline, and property, possessing, under Christ, its full power of self-government. The church, which affiliated itself with the United Church of Christ (UCC) on September 30, 1960, adheres to the UCC Statement of Faith. Prior to its union with the UCC, the church had been a member of the National Council of Congregational Christian Churches since October 25, 1913.

Our church traces its continuous existence to the First Congregational Society, which was organized and set aside by the General Court in 1751, and to the First Congregational Church, which was organized in 1752 as the first church in Chicopee. Because these two organizations came, in time, to have a totally common voting membership, they both agreed to a July 28, 1974 proposal that all meetings be held in common, and that any common action apply to both organizations.

As autonomous Congregationalists, we subscribe to no particular creed, yet we do recite either the UCC Statement of Faith, the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, or the Kansas City Statement of Faith on Communion Sundays. We believe, more important than creeds, that we live together peacefully in the service of God and humankind, using the teachings of Jesus Christ as our guide.

Our church membership has had is highs and lows over its history. In 1804, we had a low of seven members. Today we have approximately 130 members, with sixty to eighty people attending church each Sunday. We are a tightly knit fellowship, who opens our doors to newcomers, who are greeted each week by our Greeters and Deacons.

As one of few Protestant churches in a very Catholic immigrant city, we have little inter-denominational contact. Ecumenism in Chicopee is negligible, as Protestant pastors and Catholic priests expound very little desire to meet in an integrated forum. Our Chicopee Clergy Association voted itself out of existence about two years ago.

As a church, we are bonded together in Christian love, as we continually try to discern who we are and where we think we are going, in our own sense of time and place. We hope to find ways to increase our presence in the community, in the UCC, and in the world.