About us
What IS a church? A committed community that has both roots and wings!
The roots of the Federated Church of Ashland go back to the early 1800's. A century later, in 1917, Methodists, Congregationalists and Baptists were all feeling the effects of the Great War. Clergy had left to serve their country, and because coal was very scarce, the Public Safety Board asked that members of each denomination unite in such a way as to use only one church building at a time. The Congregationalists and Methodists received an invitation from the Baptist Minister, the Rev. Dolloff, to use the Baptist Church on Summer Street as they both had a minister and fuel. This proved to be the inspiration for combining the three churches, and the three congregations voted to federate, ratifying the Articles of Agreement of the Federated Church of Ashland in March of 1919.
The current church sits on a piece of land acquired from John Stone by the Congregationalists, who in 1835 built the church we now know as the Federated Church of Ashland. Today we stand as a small but thriving group of Christians who share a common love of God and a passionate commitment to serving our neighbors and our community.
During the pandemic we found new wings, working intentionally to nurture our relationships to stay even more together while apart. We continued all of the service work we had been doing -- though in slightly different forms! We have made additional resources available to the Ashland Emergency Fund, Family Promise, the Women's Shelter, and made sure Christmas came again for families we have sponsored in previous years. New in 2021 was joining the Common Cathedral Ministry on the Common in Boston and the Chaplains on the Way ministries through the First Church in Waltham in a new Socks Ministry -- what need or hope do you know of in the community we might be part of?
