About Us
Since its founding in 1721, First Congregational Church of Oxford (MA) has ministered continuously to its members, the community and the world. We are a member congregation of the United Church of Christ*(UCC), joining in mission and fellowship with 5000 other UCC congregationas throughout Massachusetts and across the United States.
Our ministries include worship, Christian education and spiritual nurture, membership care, mission and community outreach, stewardship of God’s earth.
Our church members come from many backgrounds. We are bound together by the new covenant, promised to us by the prophet Jeremiah, which is “written on the human heart rather than on tablets of stone.” This covenant formed the basis of the earliest Congregational churches, brought to America by the Pilgrims, from which our tradition is descended.
If you are seeking a new faith community, we invite you to join us at worship and to learn more about our life and mission together. We hope you’ll find a comfortable place within our warm and friendly church family.
All levels of our building are accessible for the mobility-challenged via a small elevator, ramps and a barrier-free entrance.
*The UCC is a 1957 union of the Congregational Christian and the Evangelical and Reformed traditions. To describe the United Church of Christ today, we quote from the Rev. John H. Thomas, former president of the denomination:
“We are a ‘united and uniting’ church seeking renewal through the vision of Christ’s prayer ‘that they may all be one that the world might believe.’ We are a ‘just peace’ church committed to overcoming violence and oppression. We are a ‘multi-racial, multi-cultural church’ yearning for the day when our congregations more fully reflect the vision of Pentecost. We are an ‘open and affirming’ church where no one’s baptismal identity can be denied because of his or her sexual identity. We are an ‘accessible’ church cherishing the gifts of all regardless of physical or mental abilities. More recently we have been thinking about what it means to call ourselves ‘the church of the still speaking God,’ a church that believes God has yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.”
Each UCC congregation is fully autonomous; the national denomination may speak to its churches, but not for them. In Massachusetts, the UCC churches are guided and resourced by the Massachusetts Conference.
We are an Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ
Welcome . . .
No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, we seek to find a place for you here at First Congregational Church of Oxford, Massachusetts.
We hope you find peace and uplift in our worship and a place in the full life, leadership and ministry of our congregation.
Welcome to all who have no church home, to all who need strength, to all who want to follow Christ, to those with doubts and to those who do not believe at all.
Welcome to new visitors and to old friends.
Welcome to grandparents, mothers, fathers, single people and children of all ages.
Welcome to people of all colors, cultures, abilities, sexual orientations, gender expressions and gender identities.
However the rest of the world describes you, or however you describe yourself, you are welcome to join us on our joint journey, guided by the Holy Spirit, to love God and follow in the ways of our Savior Jesus Christ.
