Early History…

Our spiritual forebears gathered to worship in the 1720’s. After numerous petitions to the Colonial Council, they were granted parish status as the Redding Ecclesiastical Society in 1729. The Parish of Redding looked after both the spiritual and the temporal well-being of the settlement, laying out roads as well as the foundations of a Meeting House. It took nearly four years to find and settle a minister, build a house of worship and organize along accepted lines. These goals were achieved in March 1733, when the church was formally organized and recognized as such. The first minister was The Rev. Nathaniel Hunn, in whose hand the earliest records were set down.

Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century…

The church saw continued expansion as a spiritual awakening was experienced across the Northeast. Methodism also arrived and flourished during that era. Our current meeting house was constructed as a Methodist house of worship on land donated by a leading Congregationalist, Deacon Abbot, who owned the adjacent parsonage. After the Civil War, the general region experienced a long period of demographic and economic decline. By 1921, membership among Congregationalists and Methodists in Redding had dropped to such a point that the two local denominations joined to form the Redding Federated Church.

First Church of Christ, Congregational Today…

In 1961, for a number of reasons, the two congregations decided to de-federate and the building was graciously given by the Methodists to the Congregational Society. At this time, forms of government and worship reverted to the truly Congregational mode. However, the Methodists presence endures in the retention of the communion rail at the front of this Meeting House. Between 1967 and 1975, the Congregation took steps to consolidate on the current property, including construction of the second Sunday School building. Today, you are surrounded by improvements completed in 2000-2001.