A Meetinghouse at the Corner of Lyme Street and Ferry Road
On a quiet intersection in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where Lyme Street meets Ferry Road, a white clapboard Meetinghouse has watched over the village in one form or another since 1665. The building that stands there now was completed in 1908 and 1909 and was lovingly restored after a fire with the help of painters from the Old Lyme art colony. Several of those artists went on to capture the Meetinghouse in celebrated canvases that still hang in galleries today. That mingling of community, art, and belonging is built into the very walls of the place.
That is where The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme gathers each Sunday morning. Members call it FCCOL, and they describe it in language that sounds more like a family than an institution: a community that asks life's biggest questions, explores the sacred, strives to embody love, and works for justice, inclusion, and transformation in the world.
Worship with Room to Breathe
Services take place every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in the historic Meetinghouse and are livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot be there in person. Each service includes communion, meditation, prayer, a sermon from one of the three ministers, and sacred music. Worship typically lasts between an hour and an hour and fifteen minutes and is followed by a coffee hour in the Fellowship Hall where new friends and longtime members mix over pastries and conversation.
The atmosphere inside the Meetinghouse is a blend of the traditional and the progressive. There is a vibrant adult choir, a magnificent pipe organ, and bell choirs whose ringing can be heard across the village. There is also a settled openness to questions, doubts, and the lived experience of every person who walks through it. The church is wholeheartedly non-creedal, meaning no one is asked to sign on to a particular set of beliefs before participating. The church's own description captures the spirit: You are welcome here, just as you are.
For families with children, the first part of the service is shared together in the pews. After the children's message, the younger ones are dismissed to God's Neighborhood Sunday School in the lower level of the Parish House. Nursery care is offered during the school year, and activities for younger children continue through the summer. The Junior High and Senior High Fellowship groups gather periodically, both on Sundays and at other times.
Special services mark the great seasons of the Christian year - Advent, Christmas Eve, Lent, Easter, and Thanksgiving - and the sanctuary fills with music, candlelight, and a sense of occasion. Worship programs include large print bulletins, assisted listening devices, and activity bags for young worshipers, and the South entrance is wheelchair accessible. Members like to say that noisy children and wiggly adults of all ages are welcome.
An Intuitive and Experience-Based Faith
The ministers and members at FCCOL describe their faith as experiential rather than doctrinal. Where some traditions emphasize right belief, FCCOL tends to emphasize right action and a love that shows up. A few lines from the congregation's own About page set the tone:
- We believe God loves you. No exceptions.
- We believe protest marches are holy, soup kitchens are sacred, and the work of building a more just and compassionate world is why we are on this planet.
- We believe all bodies are signatures of the divine.
- We believe that what we believe is a lot less important than how much we love.
Theology here is described as inclusive, expansive, and embodied, drawing wisdom from other religions, perspectives, and ways of being in the world. The Senior Minister often traces the roots of this kind of faith to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, who argued that the ground of religion takes place in the human heart and that no church, state, or biblical authority should interfere with the freedom of the soul standing before the infinite. Members are encouraged to bring the whole of themselves - their questions, doubts, convictions, and lived experience - into the sanctuary.
The church is also actively anti-racist, intentionally intergenerational, passionately justice-centered, and wholeheartedly affirming of LGBTQ+ people. It is an Open and Affirming congregation recognized by the Open and Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ.
Belonging Without Exception
The inclusion statement at FCCOL is brief: You are a beloved child of God, exactly as you are. In practice, that means the church welcomes people of every racial identity, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, ability, family shape, residency status, and economic circumstance. The phrase all means all is used often, and the work of welcome is treated as ongoing rather than finished.
Weddings hosted at the Meetinghouse are open to all couples, with or without church membership. The sanctuary is also available for memorial services and funerals for members and non-members alike, and a memorial garden sits beside the Meetinghouse where ashes of loved ones may be interred.
The Ministers and the People Who Lead Them
FCCOL is served by three ministers. Rev. Dr. Steven R. Jungkeit has been Senior Minister since 2013 and is the 19th leader in the long history of the congregation. He earned his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University, served as the Lentz Lecturer in Religious Ethics at Harvard Divinity School from 2011 to 2019, and is the author of Spaces of Modern Theology: Geography and Power in Schleiermacher's World. His ministry is deeply engaged with movements for justice - immigrant communities, anti-racism, affordable housing, and LGBTQI+ inclusion - and with global partnerships in Haiti, the Middle East, South Dakota, and across the Americas.
Rev. Laura Fitzpatrick-Nager serves as Senior Associate Minister. She came to FCCOL after serving as solo pastor of First Church in East Haddam and brings a background in speech-language pathology to her work as a listener and communicator. She holds a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and is the author of Swimming on My Wedding Day: My Cancer Journey through the Seasons. She lives in Old Lyme with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna.
Rev. Carleen R. Gerber is the Associate Minister. Born and raised in Lyme, she first came to FCCOL as organist in 1976 and has been part of the church's life in one form or another ever since. She earned her Master of Divinity from the University of South Africa, was ordained in 1996, and has long shaped the church's music ministries, pastoral care, and mission partnerships.
Simon D. Holt serves as Director of Music, and Rebecca T. Crosby serves as Minister for Haitian Outreach, in addition to the church's lay leadership through its Board of Deacons, Board of Trustees, Board of Stewardship, Church Council, and Board of Missions.
Music and the Arts at FCCOL
The arts are central to life at the church. Music is led by a nearly 45-member Adult Choir, several adult bell choirs, youth bell choirs, and a seasonal bell choir known as the Old Lyme Ringers, all under the leadership of professional directors and soloists. The youth bell choir, ReBELLion, brings together students in grades 3 through 9. The Choir sings most Sundays, prepares special music for Maundy Thursday and Christmas Eve, and occasionally joins with other area choirs for group concerts.
The church has hosted memorable concerts with artists like Ramzi Aburedwan and the Dal'Ouna Ensemble, the Altera Ensemble under Christopher Lawry, and Roman Diaz and Rumba Ensemble from Cuba. The Meetinghouse itself, painted by artists of the Old Lyme art colony after the fire, is a kind of artwork in which worship takes place.
Beyond music, the arts at FCCOL include Book Clubs that read and discuss books of current interest, a writing group called Writing at the Well that meets monthly in the Hoag Parlor, and Walt's Pottery Studio, a workspace in the basement of the Parish House equipped with wheels and a kiln where master potters offer classes to local artists.
God's Neighborhood: Children, Youth, and Families
The children's program at FCCOL is called God's Neighborhood Sunday School. It meets each Sunday morning of the school year in the lower-level Sunday School rooms in the Parish House, where children explore spiritual themes through lessons, prayers, songs, and healthy snacks. The program includes volunteering to serve neighbors, gardening, field trips, beach cleanups, theater arts camps, and annual blessings of bicycles, backpacks, and animals. The Christmas pageant is a highlight of the year.
For older students, the church offers Youth Groups for grades 6 through 12 with field trips, service learning, interfaith journeys, and a healthy amount of adventure. Confirmation classes are open to all high schoolers interested in becoming adult members of the church and run from January through June, paired with adult mentors, field trips, and community service hours.
FCCOL's youth have built relationships with peers from the Greater Hartford Islamic Center, the Berlin Mosque, and Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfei Zedek in Chester. They have traveled to the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota to be with Lakota partners, served meals through the DINE program in New London, joined Midnight Run volunteers in New York City, and walked the civil rights trail through Georgia and Alabama. They have also traveled to Haiti to participate in the work of the Crosby Fund for Education.
The church uses the word family in the broadest sense - those who are together by marriage, by blood, or by choice - and provides childcare during worship and a network of honorary grandparents to support parents through the challenging seasons of raising them.
Lifelong Learning for Adults
For adults, FCCOL offers an unusually wide range of ways to keep learning, making friends, and tending the inner life. From September through May, Adult Forums are held at 11:30 a.m. following Sunday worship, inviting experts to lead discussions on topics like climate change, conflict resolution, charitable-giving strategies, immigration, area museums, homeless services, legal aid, and LGBTQ+ issues. Past forums have featured visiting theologians and travelers returning from international partnership trips.
A weekly Bible Study gathers on Thursdays at 11:00 a.m. in the Library, co-led by Rev. Steven and Rev. Laura, with a Zoom option available. The congregation has spent much of the past year reading the Bible from cover to cover together, with discussions about what is found in the text and what is missing.
A monthly Grief and Loss Support Group, co-facilitated by Laura Fitzpatrick-Nager and retired UCC minister Gary Comstock, offers a place to share the experience of having lost a loved one or facing the ongoing challenges of caregiving. There is also a Committee on the Environment that keeps the congregation informed on environmental issues, helps Sunday School teachers weave environmental messages into their lessons, and works with local leaders on energy conservation, food-waste reduction, and sustainable food networks.
Feeding Neighbors Near and Far
Service to others is built into the identity of FCCOL. The church's outreach portfolio includes a weekly food pantry, a long-running refugee resettlement project, an Immigration Assistance Committee, an affordable housing initiative, the Benevolent Society's annual fundraising work, and a constellation of partnerships around the world.
Food pantry. Every Saturday morning, church volunteers distribute groceries in the Fellowship Hall of the Parish House from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. as part of The Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries. Each family served receives about 40 pounds of food donated by congregation members, community donors, and local farms and food banks. Regular donating partners include Smith's Acres of Niantic, White Gate Farm in East Lyme, Big Y, and Stop and Shop.
Refugee resettlement. The church's Refugee Resettlement Committee helps families fleeing dangerous conditions in their homelands find housing, support services, jobs, and schools in Connecticut. To date, the project has welcomed families from Puerto Rico, Syria, Afghanistan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Immigration Assistance Committee. The IAC helps immigrant families find free or low-cost legal aid before and during deportation proceedings, working to make sure language and education barriers do not prevent neighbors from understanding their rights. At times the church has offered sanctuary to individuals and families to slow deportation procedures and give the overburdened appeals process a chance to work.
Affordable housing. FCCOL has a long history of working for affordable housing. Highlights include a $25,000 donation to HOPE Partnership, helping build three houses in Old Lyme, working with Habitat for Humanity in Lyme, East Lyme, Salem, and New London, helping the Homeless Hospitality Center of New London rehab a home for homeless veterans, playing an instrumental role in founding the Lymes' senior housing complex on Route 1, and partnering with the Jimmy Carter Work Project to help build 100 homes in Durban, South Africa, raising more than $50,000 and sending two dozen volunteers to the build.
The Board of Missions channels support to local ministries addressing food and shelter insecurity in New London and Middlesex Counties, including the New London Community Soup Kitchen, FRESH New London, Midnight Run, the Homeless Hospitality Center of New London, the Covenant Shelter, Thames River Housing Project, Martin House, Safe Futures, and York Prison Ministry. The church is also an active supporter of the wider mission work of the United Church of Christ, including One Great Hour of Sharing and the CWS Blanket Program.
The Benevolent Society and the White Elephant Sale
Since 1888, the women of the church - and later its men and friends of varying faiths and backgrounds - have organized to raise money for local, national, and international charities and missions. The group is known today as The Benevolent Society, or TBS, and it runs several beloved traditions.
The most famous is the annual White Elephant Sale, held every July on the grounds of the church. It began in 1936 as a tag sale and has grown into a two-day community event that residents and visitors plan their summer vacations around. Nearly 200 volunteers help collect, sort, price, and sell donated antiques, art, books, bikes, canoes, clothing, collectibles, kayaks, kitchenware, shoes, ski equipment, tools, and toys. On Friday morning, a crowd gathers outside the ropes before the clock in the bell tower strikes nine; when it does, the ropes come down and shoppers stream in. On Saturday, most everything is half off. Proceeds support more than 25 nonprofit organizations across the region and around the world.
The Benevolent Society also runs a series of educational luncheons open to the congregation and community (admission is $5 plus a canned good for the food pantry) and a craft group called Ladies Who Stitch, which sews clothing and homemade crafts for people in need and during the pandemic distributed hundreds of handmade face masks.
Partnerships Across Borders
FCCOL's mission work extends well beyond Old Lyme. The church maintains long-standing partnerships with several communities and causes around the world:
- The Crosby Fund for Haitian Education supports a Crosby-built Education Center and scholarship programs in Deschapelles, Haiti, where church members have traveled for more than two decades, building relationships and supporting a food distribution program that serves more than 100 families and individuals each month.
- The Green Grass Church on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota connects the congregation with Lakota partners through regular visits, shared worship, and mutual learning.
- Tree of Life Educational Fund supports educational work in the Palestinian territories, where the church has visited families at the Tent of Nations farm and the Natural History Museum in Bethlehem.
- The Methodist Church of South Africa is another partner, alongside ongoing relationships with religious and cultural communities in Cuba and Brazil, where the Senior Minister has led travel seminars exploring the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé traditions in Salvador.
The Senior Minister's preaching often weaves these partnerships into the congregation's theology, drawing on encounters with Cuban Orisha ceremonies, Candomblé terreiros in Salvador, Jewish communities in the Palestinian territories, and Lakota elders on the South Dakota plains.
On the Land: A Nehantic Acknowledgment
The church formally acknowledges that its buildings and homes stand on the traditional territory of the Nehantic people, along with the Indigenous kin of other tribes. The acknowledgment recognizes the continued presence, resilience, and sovereignty of the Nehantic community today and commits to collaborating with Indigenous communities in the work of decolonizing, recovering, and restoring Indigenous histories, lives, and futures. Members regularly draw their minds together at the beginning of gatherings with a Nehantic prayer that gives thanks to the four directions, to the river and the ocean, to the last seven generations and the next seven.
Pastoral Care and Grief Support
The three ministers are available to support the congregation and the wider community through life's inevitable challenges. Pastoral care includes visits to homes, hospitals, hospice, and retirement facilities, as well as private meetings in the church offices for counsel, emotional support, and a listening ear. The ministers provide memorial services and grief counseling year round, as well as pre-marriage and baptism counseling. A Ministers' Discretionary Fund enables the pastors to provide direct financial support to neighbors in need.
Ways to Give and Ways to Belong
Like most congregations, FCCOL depends on the generosity of its members and friends to carry out its ministries. Stewardship giving provides about 80 percent of the costs of ministry and outreach. Donations can be made online, by mail, or in the Sunday collection plate, and the church welcomes pledges of any size. Estate planning is another way members sustain FCCOL for future generations. Importantly, the church makes clear that giving is not a condition of belonging: not everyone is in a position to give financially, and that does not limit participation.
Last year, faithful giving totaled more than $910,000, supporting worship, education, music, mission, community outreach, and pastoral care. The congregation is currently engaged in a multi-year strategic planning process with the church consultancy Convergence, focusing on continuous stewardship, exploring a capital campaign, attracting and integrating new members, improving communications, and developing a long-term staffing plan.
A Cathedral of Time in a Coastal Village
The Senior Minister has spoken of FCCOL as a kind of cathedral of time, a place that offers the necessary distance from a noisy world so that people can cultivate the virtues - civility, sociability, decorum, imagination, and rest - that human life depends on. In a time when old certainties feel thin, the church offers something both ancient and contemporary: a place to ask life's biggest questions, to sing, to feed a neighbor, to mourn a loved one, to protest an injustice, to welcome a refugee, to learn a new song on the bells, and to gather each Sunday morning under the clock in the bell tower and begin again.
The Meetinghouse has been standing in one form or another since 1665. The people who fill it on Sunday mornings in Old Lyme are committed to keeping it standing - and to keeping its doors open wide - for many generations to come.