The History of
Acton Congregational Church
The creation of Acton Congregational Church finds its roots in the Puritan society of early colonial Massachusetts. Towns incorporated under the Massachusetts Bay Colony were theocratic local governments centered around a single institution, the town parish. Acton and its original parish were founded in 1735. The first two ministers, Rev. Jonathan Swift and Rev. Moses Adams, led Acton for 81 years through the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, the scourge of smallpox, a change to the Gregorian calendar, drought, and the year without a summer. of faith and service.
During Acton’s first 100 years, theological catastrophe was gathering strength in a wave of change that eventually found its way to the Puritan backwoods town of Acton. That wave combined the intellectual frontiering and theological dissent of the Enlightenment, the repudiation of Calvanism by Unitarianism and Universalism, and a passionate renewal of faith with The American Great Awakening. By the time of Acton’s third minister, Rev. Marshal Shedd, strong divisions wracked the Acton parish with the greatest acrimony roiling between Trinitarian and Unitarian doctrine. Finally, 59 Trinitarian members broke away to form the Acton Evangelical Church in 1832. We recognize this break as the founding of Acton Congregational Church. “Evangelical” was common in the early 19th century to distinguish a church as Trinitarian. In 1963, we replaced “Evangelical” with “Congregational” and obtained our endearing abbreviation of “ACC.”
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Our church’s first minister was Rev. James Woodbury, who served at a time when Abolition, Prohibition, and Women’s Suffrage had just become national movements. Those gathering influences, together with Rev. Woodbury’s exceptional oratorical skills, his strong convictions, the egalitarian and compassionate tenets of Univeralism, and the personalization of faith from The Great Awakening all collectively and profoundly turned the original Puritan theology on a trajectory of change that led ultimately to our faithful Congregationalist community at ACC.
As a new church in 1832, we initially met in a chapel belonging to the town parish and immediately constructed the first building on our current site. Woodbury’s sermons quickly drew membership, leading in only 16 years to enlarging the building to the dimensions of our current sanctuary. We remodeled again in 1898, changing the architecture from Greek Revival to Victorian. The Acton Evangelical Church survived the great hardships of the Civil War, numerous bank runs, both World Wars, and the Great Depression. We managed to hold on by mere threads during the Depression and bounced back strong during the post-war boom economy. Starting in the 1950’s, economic growth led to greatly enlarging the church building in 1966 and again in 2002.
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Throughout our history of tremendous change, many traditions have endured. Our close connection to Acton’s founding and the Battle at Old North Bridge kept ACC integral to historical celebrations. Missions and outreach have always been a top priority. Ministry for our youth and grounding our Faith on the written Word have continued unbroken from our beginning. And a fondness for fellowship permeates all our endeavors.
Today, we are an Open and Affirming Church with women and people of all backgrounds routinely in leadership and many volunteers in service to each other and the world around us. Our church today would be unrecognizable to our Puritan forefathers—so great has been our evolution over three centuries of change. But our faith in a Trinitarian God; the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and the personal acceptance of God’s Love and Grace in the New Covenant has been unwavering from our earliest roots. ACC will continue to adapt to what the future brings to our community of faith and service.