EVERYONE IS WELCOME
With Gods help we covenant to live together in holy fellowship, according to the rule of love.
We welcome long-time churchgoers and those with no church home. We applaud believers, questioners, and questioning believers. We celebrate our diversity as people of every age and size, color, culture or race, and physical and mental ability. We embrace singles and partners of every sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. We welcome individuals of every economic status, from every neighborhood or no neighborhood, and people with any differences, real or perceived.
In a world where so much divides us, our unity is in Christ. Whoever you are, you are fully welcome into the life and ministry of Allin Congregational Church. This is a place where you can worship with dignity, celebrate, mourn, rejoice, and recover. A place where lives are made new. Know that here, you will not be judged. In the name of God, we welcome you.
WE STRIVE FOR OUR MISSION
To nurture our own faith journey and that of the members of our community by practicing love, seeking justice, and humbly recognizing the saving grace that is Jesus Christ, our Way, our Truth, our Life.
WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER
Coming together to be present with God through worship is one way we give and share faith to one another. We use that faith and love to help live our lives in a way Jesus would want us to do. Living into and through the challenges life brings us with humility, integrity, and prayer.
We receive by giving back to our community and supporting it through outreach and using our talents, time, faith, and love to connect with the world. Sharing ourselves, our faith, and living out the grace we have received from God's "love for all" helps us ensure our church family is also open, inclusive, and supportive to all.
There is no test of faith at our church, we look to the Bible and it's words to listen for God's voice relative to the contemporary world we live in today. We use our growth in faith to continue helping others.
OUR EARLY STORY
Allin Church traces its roots back to early settlers in the 1600’s, and has been serving the needs of the community for almost 400 years. Today, we continue as a blend of the old and the new, a spiritual home and a place for questions and exploration. We learn and grow, following Christ in our journey together.
The church itself is named after its first pastor, the Rev. John Allin, and is one of the oldest congregations in New England. It was gathered by believers meeting in the woods as Dedham was first settled by the Puritans. The church officially began in November of 1638 as one church with, what is now, First Church UUA. In 1818, as an outgrowth of the rapidly increasing diversity of religious and political opinion among New England Congregationalists, the congregations split into two churches. The more conservative membership of the First Parish Church of Dedham (as it was called at that time) moved their meetings across the street to the former house of Jason Haven, a former pastor of the original united church.
Church membership raised money to build a new sanctuary, and were able to break ground in August, 1819. They constructed the church through difficult weather in the fall and held the dedication on December 30th of that year in the middle of a blizzard. Over the course of decades more additions were added to accommodate the needs of a growing congregation, the most recent of which being the Bullard St entrance including an elevator to make all areas of the building accessible.
Through the years we have continuing serving the needs of our community, growing and changing with the times, but keeping faith central to the work that we do.
ABOUT OUR DENOMINATION
Allin Church is a member of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a denomination that is a distinct and diverse body of believers with 5000 individual congregations and nearly one million members across the United States. The UCC formed when separate denominational bodies sought to live by the words of Jesus who prayed that “they may all be one” (John 17:21), and formed one denomination in 1957.
The UCC lives out its mission of extravagant welcome, justice, and action, which has played out in the history of the denomination. The UCC was the first historically white denomination to ordain an African-American, the first to ordain a woman, the first to ordain an openly gay man, and the first Christian church to affirm the right of same-gender couples to marry. Our denomination was also in the forefront of the anti-slavery movement and the Civil Rights movement.
More information about the UCC can be found on the national UCC website (link to https://www.ucc.org/)