We’re glad you are here.

We are a congregation with about 80 members and many friends, first gathered here in Gloucester in 1779. We are proud of our history as the first Universalist congregation in the United States, and we are excited by our future: committed to seeking justice and being faithful stewards of our natural world and the community in which we live.

Universalism, or the belief in universal salvation, was brought to Gloucester by the Reverend John Murray, who taught that a loving God would not condemn humans to an eternity of suffering. Today we enshrine that belief in our Unitarian Universalist principles: chiefly in our belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and in our support for justice, equity, and compassion for all.

An early Unitarian, the Hungarian scholar Francis David, once proclaimed, “We need not think alike to love alike.” Within our congregation there is room for a wide variety of religious beliefs: Christian, Buddhist, and humanist, or none at all. We are a people of covenant, not of creed, and our community is anchored by our relationships and by our promises to one another to walk together in a spirit of love and trust.