A Brief History of the Phippsburg Congregational Church (UCC)
The Great English Linden Tree, planted in 1774
The Building
On July 4, 1765, several members of the 1734 Presbyterian Church at Fort Noble - in what is now the Fiddler’s Reach Road area - withdrew and gathered our Congregational Church. They erected a meetinghouse on what is now Arrowsic Island (then Georgetown) across the river and slightly north of our present meetinghouse. As more people moved to the “main," complaints soared about having to row through dangerous ice flows in the winter to attend church. The first meetinghouse was razed about 1795. Our present meetinghouse was completed in 1802 on land donated by Mrs. James (Mary) McCobb, who resided in the nearby 1774 Mansion House.
This area was a major shipbuilding and commerce center in the 1840’s. This was the golden age of sail, which drew resources of talent, materials and wealth. The meetinghouse was remodeled to its present appearance in 1846, except for its plain glass windows, which were replaced with the current stained glass windows in 1909. A painting depicting the appearance of the church before 1846 may be seen in the Phippsburg Historical Museum just down the road beside Totman Library.
Improvements during later years were: major redecoration and restoration of the interior and addition of electricity in 1952, a furnace in 1967, a restroom in one of the old wood closets in 2000, a utility room in the other wood closet in 2001, and a complete restoration of the
steeple in 2002. We've added a parking lot, reshingled the roof, and
painted the church since then. In 2005, our Allen organ was struck by
lightning and needed to be replaced. Recent
improvements include: replacing the sills, door thresholds and underpinning
supports as well as (another) new furnace in 2006; replacing the chimney and adding a
heater in the narthex in 2007. Late 2006 and early 2007 we completed the
Linden Tree Meetinghouse, allowing us space to pursue our many callings and
ministries well into the future.
Ministry
As wooden shipbuilding and commerce declined, this area slipped into depression in the later 1800s. The church was closed for long periods of time. Soon after 1900, Rev. Charles Stevens accepted a call here. He was married to one of the ladies of the church, and although he served many other churches in his career, he always returned to this, his home church, and guided it lovingly until the early 1950s.
In 1917, we became a summer church served principally by ministers from the Brightwater Colony. This remained the life of the church until 1970. On July 1, 1970, Rev. Rodman Cart accepted the call, and the church was again open full time for the first time in about 50 years. The oil crisis of 1973 reduced the church year to Palm Sunday through Christmas Eve. Rev.’s Crysdale, Speckman, Balfe, Cleary and Sammons served during the years extending to 1997. At the March 1997 annual meeting, the membership voted to reopen full time again. Rev. Stanley Welch, retired from First Baptist Church, Bath, accepted a call to become full time minister. Rev. Welch resigned in Jan. 1999 due to ill health. Mark Wilson of Bath, then Chaplain of the Popham Chapel, became our interim pastor, serving both congregations. Following a search process, he became our permanent settled pastor as of
August 2001. On November 4, 2007 Mark Wilson was officially ordained as a minister in the
United Church of Christ. We currently are blessed with growth in numbers and Spirit allowing us to pursue many ministries and expand our space further.
We are a member church of the Bath Area Food Bank, participate in Heifer
Project, Bread for the World . . . we've sent our young folks to the Maine
Conference UCC partnership in Honduras, and in ways great and small we do what
we can to participate in and anticipate the Kingdom of God.
The journey continues . . .
