Members and friends of Wiscasset’s First Congregational Church celebrated its 250th anniversary Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 9-10, as a place of worship since 1773, before the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The celebrations were held at the historic church site, on the hill overlooking the town of Wiscasset, where parishioners have gathered to worship for two and half centuries. The celebration began on Sept. 9 with an organ recital by Joel Pierce followed by a tea in the fellowship hall.
The celebration continued the morning on Sept. 19 with members and friends gathering at the church sanctuary for a service of worship, remembrance, and celebration with old friends, former pastors, the current interim Pastor Rev. David Myers, the church choir, and Tina Tucker, the wife of the late Rev. Harold Tucker.
Former pastors participating in the service included Rev. John Potter, who served as pastor 2003-2014; Rev. Susie Craig, interim pastor from 2014-2017; Rev. Bobby Ives, who was ordained at the church on June 9, 1974; and Rev. Oscar Wallace, a member of the church, and current interim pastor at The Second Congregational Church of Newcastle.
The service also included readings from Libby Mooney, chairman of the deaconate; Becky Lenz, president of the church; and Nancy Tobey, chairman of the 250th anniversary committee.
“Not only has the 250-year history of this church been rich with love and ministry by its members, it has been richly blessed with committed faithful and effective Christian ministers,” Myers said “For the members and friends, past and present, it is your passion and commitment to serve God that has undergirded leadership and served the communities chosen for you to serve.”
According to “Ye Olde First Parish,” a book written by Harold Tucker, the first building on the site was a meeting house, built in the 1760s by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1773, it became a place of worship to comply with a law that required every town maintain a minister and a teacher for a public school.
“Back then, as Tucker notes in his book,” Myers said, “it is hard for us to imagine how intertwined church and state were before the birth of the United States.”
Myers reminded the group how much better off they are today, than those in the early years of the church.
“The founding members then built a church that had inadequate heat, not enough money to have it painted, no organ, no piano,” he said. “Look where the journey has taken them.”
According to Tucker’s book, in the first years of the church the building was unheated, the services centered on preaching with long sermons. The scripture was not only read, it was explained in a scholarly manner. Prayers sometimes would last for up to an hour, requiring the church members to stand during the prayer, according to the “Ye Olde First Parish.”
“We look back at the past remembering what used to be and perhaps forgetting what is still unsettled. People are wondering what the future will bring,” Myers said. “Can we preserve what has been meaningful in the past? Or what possibly could ever take their place?”
Myers used a quote from the Rev. Andrew Young, who once said, “I don’t know what your future holds. But I know that God holds your future.”
In closing his sermon, Myers said, “Let’s celebrate and be thankful, and continue to write more chapters in the continuing story of the First Congregational Church of Wiscasset.”
After the service closed, the parishioners and guests were invited to a reception in the fellowship hall hosted by the 250th anniversary committee to continue the celebration in a social gathering, meeting and chatting with old friends while enjoying the food of Jodie’s Cafe and Bakery.
