UUCSW’s 300th Anniversary
300 years of Celebrating Love, Seeking Knowledge, and Advancing Justice
UUCSW is turning 300 in 2024, and we are ready to celebrate! We will be hosting events throughout the 2024-2025 church year to highlight our legacy of social justice, love in action, and freedom of belief. Keep an eye on this page for more information, coming soon!
Group tour at the Westborough Historical Society, January 19, 2025 after worship: See artifacts from the founding of Westborough and its first Meeting House in 1724. An original sermon of Reverend Ebenezer Parkman is on display, as well as the pewter Communion set and satin brocade wedding dress of Mary Parkman. The 1844 brick Westborough Historical Society is at 13 Parkman St., past the Library. The Museum’s galleries are on the second floor, up a flight of stairs. Local Historian and UUCSW member Kris Allen will be our guide.
Did you know?? Fun Facts about Unitarian Universalism, and UUCSW:
~Unitarians and Congregationalists are descended from the Puritans.
~The Rev. Ebenezer Parkman served as the first minister of Westborough, Massachusetts, from 1724 until his death in 1782. He was the reverend of the First Church of Christ in Westborough, from which both UUCSW and The Congregational Church of Westborough descend. You can find out more about Rev. Parkman at the Ebenezer Parkman Project website: https://www.ebenezerparkman.org/
~So what’s the difference between Unitarians and Congregationalists, you might ask? Good question! We have a long history with our Congregational siblings, but in the late 1700s, the Congregational church split into “Trinitarian Congregationalists” and “Unitarian Congregationalists”. There were a number of reasons, but one in particular is evident in the name: Unitarian Congregationalists believed that God was all-one, and rejected the doctrine of the Trinity.
~In 1849 we began to build our present building, and dedicated it in 1850. We are legitimately the First Congregational Society. Our friends across the street are legitimately the First Congregational Church. Both are parts of the Church that was founded – by a vote of the Society – in 1724. A few years ago they dropped “Evangelical” from their name, and are now the Congregational Church, United Church of Christ. We have added “Universalist” to our name to reflect the national consolidation of the Unitarians and Universalists in 1961. So we are the Unitarian Universalist Congregational Society of Westborough, a long name, indeed!