About Us

Unfortunately, Park Congregational Church had to close its doors in 2020. However, in an effort to preserve the great history of the church and its community, we will continue to tell the story of this great congregation!

Park Congregational Church was the first church in the United States to have started exclusively as a ministry to children. Originally located in the heart of historic Elm Park in Worcester, the nation’s oldest public park, the church began as a ministry to the children who would come to play in the park, along with their parents, in the 1880s. In 1884 a Sunday School was formed. In 1887 with the help of the Worcester City Missionary Society, a building was constructed at the corner of Elm Street and Russell Street. This building served as the home of Park Congregational Church until the summer of 2008 when we sold the structure and moved to our present location at 111 Park Avenue. We at Park Congregational Church today continue to emphasize ministry to children and youth and see them as a vital part of the Body of Christ.

Our worship services spoke to both the heart and the head with a traditional Order of Worship with acolytes, both an Adult and Children’s Choir, lay participation, and a sermon that tends to follow the readings of the Revised Common Lectionary, a three-year cycle of biblical texts that summarize the teachings of scripture.