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Organized November 2, 1862
As "A Church of our Lord Jesus Christ"
Recognized by an Ecclesiastical Council of
Orthodox Congregational Churches
July 21, 1867
Adopted the name
Pilgrim Church
November 10, 1877
Joined the United Church of Christ
May 14, 1961
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On the evening of November 2, 1862, during the troubled days of the Civil War, sixteen persons met at the home of the Rev. Edmund Squire in Dorchester, Massachusetts and united themselves together into what the called an unsectarian Church of Jesus Christ. This humble beginnig has grown into what we now know as Pilgrim Church. |
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| The Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter the second Pastor of this congregation |
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| Rev Henry Martyn Dexter, the second minister of what is now known as Pilgrim Church, was a congregational luminary of the latter half of the nineteenth century. In addition to authoring a clergy response to the Missouri compromise and serving as the librarian of the Congregational Library in Boston, Massachusetts, Rev. Dexter translated the oldest Christian hymn whose author is known, Shepherd of Tender Youth. |
| After much discussion as to whether this new congregation should unite with the Methodist or Congregational churches, the Church was received into the fellowship of Orthodox Congregational Churches on July 21, 1867. At this time, the congregation had forty-six members. On November 10, 1877, the name of Pilgrim Church was adopted. | |
| By 1890, the foundations had been laid on Columbia Road for the New Pilgrim Church. However, the congregation was still meeting on Stoughton Street, in what the Rev. Wiliam Hervey Allbright described as being as if an industrious yankee had found Noah's Ark and dropped it in the midst of Upham's Corner. Soon, the congregation moved into the eastern portion of a meeting house which was designed by Stephen Earle of Worcester, Massachusetts. By the end of the nineteenth century, the church had completed the auditorium (main sanctuary.) | |
| Also in the 1890's, it was recognized that there was the need for a Congregational ministry closer to the Savin Hill area of Dorchester. As a result, on February 1, 1893, the Romsey Street Congregational Church was opened. After the changes in society in the 1920's, it was decided in 1930 that the Romsey Church would re-unite with Pilgrim Church. They brought with them three memorial stained glass windows which, regretably, were destroyed by a fire in 1970 which ravaged the main sanctuary. A fourth stained glass window, of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, is dedicate to Linwood Wilson (1906-1930) who died in a swimming accident. | |
One evening in October, 1970, a fire broke out in the attic above the main sanctuary. While the fire itself was confined above the ceiling, water and smoke caused immense damage. Afterwards, it was decided that worship would return to the original chapel of 1890 while the sanctuary would be rebuilt as a multi-purpose fellowship hall. | |
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| Lunch at Pilgrim, ca. 1979 |
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| On Sunday, October 15, 2006 a new chapter began in the life of Pilgrim Church. Building on the tradition begun in 1862 as an "unsectarian Church of our Lord Jesus Christ" it was decided to blend our 11:00 Sunday Worship service with that of Iglesia el Mesias (a Spanish-speaking congregation of the Pentecostal tradition.) While this experiment was short-lived, as Iglesia el Mesias has dispersed, the influence continues. | |
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