North Church, UCC, Portsmouth, NH

North Church, UCC, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

I stumbled into a visit to this gorgeous quintessential New England church on one of several visits to Portsmouth in the 2019 summer. The church had open doors, something that is unfortunately rare in the U.S., however because Portsmouth draws a considerable amount of foot traffic, perhaps it was feasible. 


History: 

This parish has a long history in the region and their website takes tome time to give a high level review. With a timeline stretching back to 1641, the current building was constructed in 1855. Of particular interest, George Washington was said to have worshiped with the Parish during visits to Portsmouth. An architectural firm of Towle and Foster, based out of Boston designed the building. John D. Towle specialized in churches but also designed a couple of notable homes, most of which are scattered across the New England region.



Contributions of North Church: 

When visiting churches I often like to make a point to highlight some of the tremendous outreach and change these organizations foster upon their surrounding community and the broader world. North Church is no exception to this. Looking at their website, one can note parishioners contributing to soup kitchens, food pantries, organizations such as Heifer International and the Red Cross, and even becoming involved in providing disaster relief in distant areas.









Text and photographs by George Parks
Sources are embedded in links


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Medford, Massachusetts

Image
Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Medford, Massachusetts Pillars & Foundations was initiated as an exploration communities as well as faith through religious institutions. My intent is to share experiences, and spread the positivity that I observe. Faith centers embody a drive to make a difference which they deliver upon, regardless if it is with one person looking for hope & community, or a recipient of their expansive charitable work. I was lucky to find introductory courses available on Tibetan Buddhism at Kurukulla Center so close to me in Medford. The timing of the offerings was conveniently at 7:00 pm, leaving time to get there following work. However, I did make a special point to drive instead of riding my bike which tends to leave me in less than desirable condition to be in confined quarters with strangers. Before I get too much into details on this experience, I'd like to stress my level of ignorance of the details Tibetan Buddhism, thus ...
Read more

National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, Attleboro, Massachusetts

Image
National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, Attleboro, Massachusetts Pillars & Foundations documents an exploration of communities, as well as faith through religious institutions. My intent is to share experiences, and spread the positivity that I observe.  Reflecting on my 2018 Journey Prior to discussing Our Lady of La Salette further, please humor me as I reflect. This blog has documented a year long journey that has taken me to over 50 different churches, shrines, temples and faith centers. Most of these I was privileged to attend a service and to mingle with community members. It has be a terrific experience exploring faith, religion, community, charity, and I am better off as a consequence. It is fitting that I write about the shrine of La Salette in Attleboro as my experience touring the lights in 2017 with my wife, drinking hot chocolate, warming ourselves by a fire, watching a candle light procession of Silent Night at a manger, and seeing families experi...
Read more

First Congregational Church, UCC, Melrose, Massachusetts

Image
First Congregational Church, UCC, Melrose, MA Pillars & Foundations was started as an effort to explore my surrounding communities through their religious institutions, and to share my experiences at them with my neighbors and beyond. These organizations that are both social and spiritual, leave lasting impressions on the communities that they are in, and I find in my experiences that I've taken them for granted, and I suspect I'm not alone. What strikes me what all of these institutions strive to do is make a difference, and they do, regardless if it is one person looking for hope & community, or a with recipient of their charitable work. Building & History People who pass by the low profile octagonal church in Melrose should not be fooled by the contemporary campus. This organization has a long history ( information on FCCM website ) in the community dating back to 1848. The new building was constructed in 1970 following a fire tha...
Read more

St. James's Church Piccadilly, London, UK

Image
St. James's Church Piccadilly, London, UK During a brief trip to the UK last fall my wife and I spent some time roaming the streets of London and Edinburgh. I tried to pop into churches that had open doors when I had the time, and St. James was one such site we stumbled upon. At the time of our visit their yard was over run by a food truck festival, which I believe may have been a fund raiser. We explored a bit, however due to these circumstances my photographs are primarily limited to the interior as opposed to the outside architecture and grounds. Over the course of working on Pillars & Foundations, I began following several "Church Crawling," forums in social media, and through this I often heard of Sir Christopher Wren , famed architect of St. Paul's Cathedral (I also visited St. Paul for a choir recital, unfortunately they are very prohibitive with photography so I'm on the fence on whether I'll put together a post with the several exterior ...
Read more

Saint Athanasius Parish, Reading, MA

Image
Saint Athanasius Parish, Reading, Massachusetts I intend to explore and experience the services of many different churches, predominantly near where I live in Massachusetts. Discovering all of these different faith communities builds my knowledge of the neighborhoods around me and the people who live there. These institutions are important, often overlooked and even misjudged centers of our communities that seek to make a positive impact on their participants, as well as others through their generosity and public service. It is possible that through this activity I may eventually consider a long term relationship with one of these pillars and foundations of the community, however I am eager to do a lot of exploring first. History & Building I was pleased to find that Saint Athanasius has an excellent write-up on their web page about their parish history. The parish is fairly new when compared to many I have visited, establishing in 1960, and their unusual, modern ch...
Read more