OUR CHURCH HISTORY

Our congregation has a long history and the present congregation is the outcome of the merger of three churches. Our earliest roots are in the First Church of Christ of Lynn, organized in 1632.

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About two hundred years later, in 1822, a group of liberals withdrew to form the Second Congregational Society. Its first building was dedicated on South Common Street in 1832 and its second at the corner of Atlantic and Baltimore Streets in 1910. In 1919 that congregation changed its name to the Unitarian Church of Lynn.

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The First Universalist Society, located in Lynn, was organized in 1833. Its first building was dedicated on Union Street in 1835 and its second on Nahant Street in 1873. By the late 1800s, the congregation was the largest Universalist Church in America. In 1908, the congregation changed its name to First Universalist Parish of Lynn.

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The Swampscott Universalist Society was organized in 1889, and its building on Burrill Street was dedicated in 1891. The Swampscott Universalist Society later changed its name to the Swampscott Universalist Church.

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Between 1964 and 1966 these three churches consolidated. On March 22, 1981, our present meetinghouse, on seven and a half acres of wooded land in Swampscott, was dedicated; and the congregation was renamed the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn.