First Church in Roxbury

The First Church in Roxbury
The First Church in Roxbury, Modern Day
Basic information
Location	Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts
Affiliation	Unitarian Universalist (currently) Congregational Church (originally)
Status	Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry Headquarters
Completed	1632

Unitarian Universalist (currently)

The First Church in Roxbury, also known as the First Church of Roxbury is the current headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist ("UU") Urban Ministry. The church has been in use since 1632 when early English settlers built the first meetinghouse. Since then, the meetinghouse has been rebuilt four times, and its appearance today reflects how the meetinghouse looked in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries.

The First Church of Roxbury was the sixth church to be gathered by the early English settlers. In 1631, settlers living in Roxbury, who belonged to the Church of Dorchester, were finally self-sufficient enough to create their own church - the First Church of Roxbury. The "official" beginning of the church is recognized as when the first meeting house was constructed the next year. The first meetinghouse served as a central part of the community from 1632-1674. The first pastor, Reverend Thomas Weld, was ordained in July 1632 (and it is presumed that that is also when the Church's covenant, a document stated the congregation was officially recognized by the church, was signed). There is no definitive record of what the first meeting house looked like, but based on the construction of the time, it was likely a simple, small building with a thatched roof. The first meeting house served as a central location for the budding community in Roxbury, as the church was a central part of the early settlers lives (many of whom were fleeing to America for freedom from religious persecution). In August, 1645, the congregation decided to create the "Free Schoole in Roxburie" (now Roxbury Latin School).Samuel Danforth, the second pastor of the church, was ordained September 24, 1650.

John Eliot was ordained as the first teacher on November 5, 1632. Eliot, as a Puritan missionary became known by many as "the apostle to the Indians" for learning the Algonquin language (the Native American language spoken in the area at the time). He used this knowledge to translate the ten commandments, the Lord's prayer, and other scriptures into the Algonquin language, to try converting the natives to Puritan Christianity. Although unintentional, Eliot also introduced the concept of written language as the natives did not previously have a phonetic alphabet; they communicated primarily through spoken language with their written language being mainly pictorial images (such as Egyptian hieroglyphs).