First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, stands at 444 East Broad Street in the heart of downtown Columbus, where the words inscribed above the front doors have greeted members and visitors since 1931: "Enter to Worship, Depart to Serve." From its abolitionist roots in 1852 to its modern role as an Open and Affirming congregation within the Heartland Conference of the United Church of Christ, the church has shaped its identity around two enduring commitments: a high standard of worship and music, and an equally high calling to social justice. The building itself, a soaring Gothic Revival cathedral designed by John Russell Pope, houses one of the few collections of two world-class pipe organs in North America and a wide program of music, faith formation, and community ministry.
Enter to Worship, Depart to Serve
That inscription captures the rhythm of life at First Church. Members and friends gather on Sundays to worship and then scatter, again, to serve those in need in the community and beyond. The congregation describes itself with the words of the prophet Micah: people who seek to "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God" every single day. First Congregational Church is an Open and Affirming congregation that welcomes all people regardless of age, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression, family structure, mental or physical condition, economic circumstance, political or theological background, or faith journey.
The congregation's covenant begins with God as Creator and sustainer of life, follows Jesus Christ as Teacher and Savior, and moves outward under the power of the Holy Spirit to witness God's love and justice in the world. Within the United Church of Christ family, First Church joins in the three Great Loves: Love of Neighbor, Love of Children, and Love of Creation.
Worship on Broad Street
Two Sunday morning services anchor the week. At 9 a.m., a casual and inclusive Morning Prayer and Holy Communion service gathers in the Parish Hall. Communion is offered every Sunday at this service, and lay leadership helps with liturgy, prayer, and serving communion. The service ends at 9:45 a.m., so participants can walk upstairs to the Education Wing for the Faith Formation Hour at 10 a.m.
At 11 a.m., worship moves into the Gothic-style sanctuary for a more formal service. The First Church Choir sings from either the Gallery or the Chancel, the two pipe organs lead congregational song, and the liturgy follows the rhythms of the Christian year. Both services are livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook Live, and downloadable bulletins are available for each Sunday.
A Choral Evensong is offered on the third Sunday of each month in the Sanctuary, led by the First Church Choir as a meditative service of light, music, and prayer. Communion is also celebrated on the first Sunday of each month at the 11 a.m. service, and on special occasions throughout the church year. All who acknowledge faith that Jesus Christ is God's sign of redeeming grace are invited to the table, and children are welcome at the communion of their family's choosing.
Children are welcomed and encouraged throughout both services. They serve communion at the early service, act as acolytes and crucifers at the later service, sing in the choirs, and join the whole congregation for Children's Time. A fully staffed nursery for infants through age four is available during both services and the Faith Formation Hour on the first floor of the Education Wing. Children age four through second grade are invited to "Worship Connections" in the Alma Keeler Children's Library during the sermon at 11 a.m., where they hear a short lesson and return to worship afterward.
A Cathedral of Grace
First Church occupies a building that has been called a "Cathedral of Grace" and "our Gothic Beauty." Designed by the eminent architect John Russell Pope and dedicated on December 6, 1931, in the heart of the Great Depression, the church was a gift of memory to the Rev. Dr. Washington Gladden and a statement of faith by a congregation willing to spend more than a million dollars on sacred architecture during hard times.
The Gothic Revival sanctuary features towering ceilings, stained glass windows, and rich wood carvings that make the space both grand and unexpectedly intimate. Washington Gladden Windows stand in the west transept, with the figures of Justice and Charity as witnesses to the congregation's continuing call. The chancel area houses the Chancel organ; the Gallery organ sits behind the congregation in the rear balcony, and the great arch above the high pulpit carries the spoken word the length of the nave. Throughout the sanctuary, slate floors and the acoustical treatment of the ceiling create an environment that organist Kevin Jones described as "a great music box" and choral director James Gallagher called "our best instrument."
The Education Wing was added in 1964, and the building has continued to evolve over the decades. Today the church holds seating for up to 500 guests and ample free parking in the North Lot and West Lot. Visitors enter through the Broad Street entrance, the Education Wing entrance, or the elevator. The church office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with access through the Ninth Street door and an intercom bell.
Two Organs, One Singing Church
First Church is one of the few churches in North America with two world-class pipe organs, totaling more than 8,100 pipes. Together they cover five centuries of organ repertoire and stand at the center of a music program that has earned the congregation a reputation as "a singing church" in the truest sense.
The Martin-MacNevin Memorial Organ, also known as the Kimball organ, was built by W. W. Kimball of Chicago in 1931 as a gift from Alice Robbins Martin in memory of her husband Walter Henry Martin. A four-manual symphonic organ with 66 stops, 66 ranks, and 4,407 pipes, it sat largely unused from 1972 until 2004, when a four-year restoration led by the Peebles-Herzog Company of Columbus brought it back to life. The restoration was funded through the estate of Jean MacNevin, a First Church choir member, in honor of her husband Bill. Today the Kimball is prized for its warm, French-Romantic color and its ability to replicate the instruments of the orchestra.
The Beckerath Organ, built by Rudolf von Beckerath of Hamburg, Germany, in 1972, is a three-manual instrument with 47 stops, 73 ranks, and 3,719 pipes, with mechanical key action and electric stop action. Known for its brilliance and versatility, it is particularly suited to Baroque repertoire. The Beckerath was inaugurated with a series of three recitals by national and international artists and has since drawn organ enthusiasts from across the country to First Church.
Music at First Church extends well beyond the organs. The First Church Choir is an adult mixed ensemble that sings at the 11 a.m. service and at monthly Choral Evensong from September through June. Rehearsals are held on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings. The choir has toured to cathedrals across the United Kingdom and the United States, and professional section leaders support the ensemble's work in five centuries of choral music.
The First Church Ringers is an adult handbell choir ringing five octaves of Malmark handbells and seven octaves of Malmark choirchimes, acquired in 2023-24. The ensemble rehearses Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. and helps lead worship regularly. First Church Campanelle, a beginning ringer group, rehearses Monday evenings and helps lead worship quarterly. A two-manual French-style harpsichord, built by church member Ben Bechtel before his death in 2008 and modeled after a 1769 instrument by Pascal Taskin, is also used in concerts and frequently rented by the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and the Columbus Symphony. Four grand pianos and several console and upright pianos round out the keyboard collection, along with a Steinway Concert Grand on loan from the Columbus Chamber Music Society.
Two hymnals serve the congregation: The New Century Hymnal at the 9 a.m. service and Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs at the 11 a.m. service. In 2021 the church celebrated In One Voice, a hymnal supplement assembled by a committee of more than twenty members who sang through hundreds of hymns and chose 152 hymns and 22 pieces of service music that reflect First Church's emphases on social justice, openness, affirmation, and welcome for all. The supplement provides new texts by modern poets and includes more voices by women, people of color, and different cultures.
The musical life of the church is anchored today by Joshua Stafford, Minister of Music since 2023. A native of Jamestown, New York, and a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Yale School of Music, Stafford was named the Pierre S. du Pont First Prize Winner of the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition in 2016. He is also director of sacred music and organist at the Chautauqua Institution. At First Church he has introduced silent-film presentations with live organ improvisation and continues the long tradition of Congregational Concerts that bring internationally renowned organists, choral ensembles, and instrumentalists to Columbus.
From Abolition Roots to the Social Justice Park
First Congregational Church was born of Christian dissent. In 1852, forty-two members of Second Presbyterian Church in Columbus, troubled by the union of Christian faith with a nation that still held enslaved people, withdrew to form the Third Presbyterian Church, with a Congregational heart. They received a $1,000 loan from their former congregation, bought a lot at Third Street and Lynn Alley, and dedicated a frame chapel on July 11, 1852. By 1856 they had renamed themselves The First Congregational Church of Columbus, and on December 23, 1857, they dedicated a Norman-style building at 73 East Broad Street, directly across from the State House. In 1931 the congregation completed the present Gothic cathedral at 444 East Broad Street, the building members and visitors know today.
That abolitionist beginning shaped everything that followed. The Rev. Dr. Edwin Goodwin, pastor during the Civil War years, was an active abolitionist whose "pulpit of First Church gave forth no uncertain sound." When President Lincoln's body was carried from Washington to Springfield in April 1865, Dr. Goodwin was one of only two Ohio pastors to lead the service for nearly 100,000 people on Capital Square. The congregation's deep commitment to justice continued through the twentieth century. The Rev. Dr. Chalmers Coe responded unequivocally to the 1960s call for civil rights, and during his tenure the congregation voted to join the United Church of Christ.
Today that heritage lives on in the Washington Gladden Social Justice Park, located on the church grounds and believed to be the nation's first public park dedicated to social justice. The park is named in honor of the Rev. Washington Gladden, the congregation's seventh pastor and the man often called "the Prophet of the Social Gospel," who served First Church for thirty-six years from 1882 until his death in 1918.
The Gladden Legacy
Washington Gladden drew throngs of hearers to First Church, and for years his sermons were reprinted in full on the front page of Columbus's leading newspaper. A national magazine once placed him in the same circle as Thomas Edison as one of the people who had done the most good for America. Gladden grasped something that was only dimly sensed until his day: that the Gospel is not intended merely for the salvation of individuals but for the transformation of society. He preached remarkable devotional sermons on Sunday mornings and a different kind of sermon on Sunday evenings, taking up collective bargaining, milk inspection, the rights of coal miners and streetcar workers, the treatment of Black Americans, and questions of war and peace.
Gladden was a poet and musician as well as a theologian. He wrote many hymns, including "O Master Let Me Walk With Thee," and once attempted to take charge of the music at First Church himself. The choir, unimpressed, walked out in mutiny within a few weeks, and original order was restored. His influence stretched across central Ohio. He was nearly named president of The Ohio State University but lost the post because of grudges held against him for defending Roman Catholics from demagogic assault and attacking the use of John D. Rockefeller's "tainted money" in Congregational institutions.
Gladden's legacy remains part of First Church's identity. The Justice and Mercy Commission, the church's outreach work, the social justice preaching that the congregation has come to expect, and the very phrasing of the Open and Affirming statement adopted by the congregation in 2002 and revised in 2019 all trace their roots to this one remarkable pastorate.
Faith Formation for Every Age
The Faith Formation program at First Church welcomes learners of every age. At 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings, between the two worship services, the Education Wing fills with children, youth, and adults in study, conversation, and friendship.
Children's Faith Formation gathers children in classes divided by age: Preschool, Kindergarten and First Grades, Second and Third Grades, and Fourth and Fifth Grades. Teachers use age-appropriate lesson plans with a story, a small discussion, and an activity. Educational classes run from the first Sunday after Labor Day through the second Sunday in May. Each fourth grader receives an NRSV gift Bible in a tradition that has spanned more than seventy-five years at First Church, and four-year-olds receive a Story Bible to begin their journey in the Scriptures.
Youth at First Church includes both Middle School (grades 6-8) and High School (grades 9-12) Sunday morning classes, mid-September through mid-May. Confirmation is offered as a year-long program for eighth graders and unconfirmed youth aged 14 and older, taught by the senior minister with two adult co-leaders. Each confirmand is paired with an adult mentor for the year, and the program involves field trips to other faith traditions in addition to classroom study with the United Church of Christ curriculum.
Youth also meet on Sunday evenings for Youth Connections, a middle school and high school youth group focused on spirituality, mission, education, and fellowship. Each year the youth participate in a mission trip on a cycle of local and urban service. Every other year they serve in the West Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus, working with the Gladden Community House on its Senior Program; in alternating years they travel to a larger urban setting, with past mission trips to Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago, Biloxi, Washington D.C., and New York City. Youth support their mission work through annual fundraising events including the Cabaret and Spaghetti Supper and Christmas Fudge Sales.
Adult Faith Formation meets during the regular Sunday Faith Formation time at 10 a.m. and at other times during the week, with offerings that include formal Bible studies, lectures and discussions on social issues, weekend retreats, a Wednesday Book Study, Lenten Small Groups, and film viewings.
The Milestone Ministry marks important moments in the lives of children and youth at First Church. Newborns are celebrated with handmade baby quilts from the First Church Quilters. Baptisms are marked with a cradle cross and book. Fourth graders receive their Bibles. Confirmation culminates each May in a service for the confirmands. Youth obtaining their driving permit or license receive a United Church of Christ key chain. High school, vocational school, and college graduates are recognized with a gift book.
The Alma Keeler Children's Library, located on the second floor of the Education Wing, holds a wide collection of award-winning books for children and parents, with focus areas that include faith, biblical stories, social justice, race, mental illness, history, age-appropriate LGBTQ stories, immigration, refugees, kindness, mission, music, and world religions. The Adult Library, located at the bottom of the stairs across from the Spirituality Network offices, holds a wide range of theological, social justice, and faith formation books, with WiFi and comfortable chairs for reading.
Justice and Mercy in Action
The Justice and Mercy Commission keeps First Church engaged in mission locally, nationally, and internationally. Designated offerings go to a Mission of the Day each Sunday, supporting a range of partners. The Good Samaritan Fund helps people who come to the door of First Church in need each month. First Church helps prepare meals at LSS Faith Mission for those experiencing homelessness and food insecurity. The Gladden Community House, a settlement house in Franklinton founded in 1905 by Rev. Washington Gladden and Mrs. Celia Jeffery as a neighborhood outreach mission of First Church, remains a partner in West Side ministry. Laundry Love meets at 5:30 p.m. on the last Tuesday of each month at Wash Land Laundromat to help individuals and families in poverty wash their clothes and bedding. The Largest Table provides food each Wednesday, with the First Church meal team gathering on the third Wednesday of each month to pack lunches. First Church is a founding member of BREAD (Building Responsibility Equality and Dignity), a Columbus faith-based organization of nearly fifty congregations that addresses local community issues.
Bethlehem on Broad Street (BOBS) was started many years ago in response to a single request for dinner on Christmas, and now sponsors three events: the Broad Street United Methodist food giveaway, the Project Help clothing giveaway, and a Christmas Day celebration that serves several hundred guests each year. First Church also supports the wider mission of the United Church of Christ through annual offerings including Basic Support of Our Church's Wider Mission, One Great Hour of Sharing, Strengthen the Church, Neighbors In Need, and The Christmas Fund.
Caring for One Another
The Congregational Care Ministry gathers several caring ministries of First Church under one roof, including Stephen Ministry, the Bereavement Team, Full Circle Connections, Card Care Ministry, and the Care and Share Kitchen.
Stephen Ministry trains lay caregivers in Christian caregiving through topics that include feelings, the art of listening, distinctively Christian caring, assertiveness, confidentiality, and ministering to those experiencing grief. Stephen Ministers provide one-to-one confidential care to individuals experiencing difficulties in life, walking alongside them with Christ-centered care. Stephen Leaders Wendy Kennedy, Susie Loik, and Annette McCormick coordinate the program.
The Bereavement Team, founded in 2013 by then Senior Deacon Elaine Warren, has hosted sixty-three events to date. Families may choose from simple cookies-and-coffee receptions through sit-down hot luncheons or dinners, all without charge. The Card Care Ministry meets on the first Monday of each month to write sympathy, get-well, thinking-of-you, birthday, and anniversary cards to members and friends. The Care and Share Kitchen prepares healthy meals to stock the freezer for members needing meal support after a birth, hospitalization, or loss. Full Circle Connections gathers twice a month on the second and fourth Fridays at 10 a.m. in the church parlor for intentional conversation around chosen themes. The Fiber Arts Ministry knits, crochets, quilts, and weaves prayer shawls, baby blankets, and other gifts filled with prayers. The Spiritual Practices Ministry, led by Jacquelyn Dean, a Commissioned Minister in Spiritual Direction and Formation, offers sessions of prayer, meditation, reflection, journaling, and the creative arts throughout the year. A Visitation Ministry helps keep members connected when illness, hospitalization, or mobility concerns keep them apart from the life of the congregation.
Weddings in the Gothic Sanctuary
First Congregational Church welcomes weddings in its sanctuary, where towering ceilings, stained glass windows, and rich wood carvings create a setting that is awe-inspiring and surprisingly intimate. The wedding package includes use of the sanctuary and wedding room for the rehearsal and ceremony, three or more sessions with a First Church minister (or the invitation to bring another minister of your choice), a wedding coordinator, seating for up to 500 guests, off-street parking, and an organist with access to the church's two pipe organs. The building is also available for wedding receptions, meetings, dances, rehearsals, and music groups, provided the event does not oppose the basic tenets of the church's constitution. First Church is a non-smoking environment. Inquiries are directed to Annette McCormick at the church office.
A Living Cathedral on East Broad Street
The church's leaders reflect both continuity and change. Rev. Becky David serves as Interim Senior Minister, working collaboratively with Joshua Stafford and other staff to plan worship by liturgical season and to guide the congregation through its next season of life. Rev. jessica young chang serves as Interim Associate Minister, also working as a reproductive chaplain in the greater Columbus area. Leslie Fulford serves as Interim Director of Faith Formation, leading Christian education programming for children through adults and organizing outreach activities and events. The staff also includes Administrative Manager Amy Wagner, Communications Manager Melissa Kulwicki, Business Administrator Annette McCormick, Office Assistant Pat Patterson, Building and Grounds Superintendent Kevin Salem, and a team of dedicated custodians.
First Congregational Church, UCC, stands as one of the most historically significant and musically distinguished congregations in central Ohio. From the abolitionist chapel of 1852 to the Gothic cathedral of 1931 to the Open and Affirming community of today, the church has held fast to its twin callings: a beautiful, dignified worship life and an unwavering commitment to social justice. The great arch of the chancel still sends the spoken word the length of the nave, the two pipe organs still speak across five centuries of repertoire, and the words above the front doors still tell every passerby exactly what to do. Enter to worship. Depart to serve.