The white steeple has stood on Central Street in Andover for roughly three hundred years, the same length of time that South Church has called this corner home. The building is one of the oldest landmarks in town, but the congregation has built its reputation not on the building's age so much as on what happens inside it each week. A diverse United Church of Christ congregation with a strong Open and Affirming identity, South Church is known in the Merrimack Valley for blending traditional and contemporary worship, sustaining an unusually deep music program for all ages, and for turning its considerable energy outward through the Giving Garden, ten core mission partners, and a Social Justice Coalition that takes positions on immigration, racial equity, climate, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Three Centuries on Central Street
South Church's history reaches back roughly three centuries. In 2014, when the church unanimously affirmed the call of Reverend Dana Allen Walsh, the congregation was marking its 300th year and welcoming the eighteenth Senior Pastor - and the first woman to hold the role. That long memory shows up in small ways: in the historic cemetery behind the building that the church still maintains, in the bylaws last revised in 2023, and in the ongoing construction blog titled "Building for the Future," where members have followed the restoration of the weathervane, the steeple, the clock face, the chandelier extensions, and the sanctuary platform over the course of a single summer.
Andover itself, once a farming and mill town north of Boston, has become a regional center for education and healthcare, and the church draws members from across the Merrimack Valley, New England, the Northeast, and beyond. Some members live in other time zones entirely and tune in through the YouTube livestream. The motto that runs across the top of every page is three words: Faithful, Relevant, Inclusive.
Where Everyone Is Welcome
The church's welcome statement is unusually direct. It reads: "This is God's House and in God's House there is room for everyone; of every background and belief; of every race, creed and culture; of every gender and sexual orientation; of every emotion and ability. We are better and stronger because you are here. Wherever you are on life's journey, you are welcome at South Church."
South Church is an Open and Affirming (ONA) congregation of the United Church of Christ, meaning that people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are not only welcome but affirmed in the full life and ministries of the church. The ONA work is not just a policy; it is supported by an active team called South Church PRIDE, by a TransParent Support Group for parents and guardians of trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming kids, and by an annual Pride Parade that the church co-hosts with Andover DIVERSE. Members joined a public interfaith statement affirming LGBTQ+ people, and the church library keeps one of the most thorough LGBTQ+ reading collections in the area, with separate lists for children, youth, and adults.
The church's stated mission is short and pastoral: "Following in the way of Jesus, we welcome all and actively nurture connections within and beyond our walls that bring meaning and joy in spiritual growth, fellowship, and service." Members describe the community in their own words as a "rich mix of young, old, gay, straight, single, partnered, believer-since-birth, spiritual-but-not-religious and a little bit of all things."
Sunday Mornings at Ten
Sunday worship is the heart of the week. The service begins at 10:00 AM in the sanctuary and is livestreamed at the same time on YouTube, with recordings available afterward for those who cannot attend live. The congregation talks openly about what it calls a balanced approach: traditional and contemporary worship sit side by side, and the team tries to lift up whatever will help make services relevant and beautiful on any given Sunday.
Worship is followed by a fellowship hour that the entire congregation is invited to join. Communion Sundays are inclusive: "everyone - including kids - is invited to receive." Families begin the service together in the sanctuary and, after the children's message, younger children may either remain in worship or move to Sunday School in the children's wing.
Accessibility has been thought through deliberately. Marked accessible parking spaces sit near both side entrances, both of which are wheelchair accessible and open into the main corridor. An elevator serves all floors, including the sanctuary. Accessible seating is available in the sanctuary, with ushers ready to help. Hearing assist devices are available, and the audio team supports both T-Coil and Auracast for compatible hearing aids. Wheelchair accessible restrooms are spread through the building, and gender-neutral restrooms are located on the first and second floors.
A separate monthly worship service is held at Edgewood LifeCare Community in North Andover, bringing South Church worship to residents who cannot easily come to Central Street.
A Sanctuary Full of Sound
Music is one of the clearest expressions of who South Church is. Cathy Meyer, the Minister of Music, is a full-time musician who performs on organ and piano, conducts, teaches, and serves on the American Guild of Organists National Committee for Educational Programming. The Sanctuary Choir, which rehearses on Thursday evenings, "inspires and encourages congregational participation through strong leadership and enhancement of hymns and service music." A separate handbell ensemble, called the Ringers, plays a five-octave set of English handbells and hand chimes and rehearses the same evening. Members range from high school students to retirees.
Children's music is given the same seriousness as adult music. The "Bee Suite" music program starts with HoneyComb Choir for children ages 0 to 5, who sing, move, and explore instruments with a parent or caregiver. Nectar Choir serves children in kindergarten through second grade, and Hive Choir welcomes third through fifth graders as they begin to sing in parts while playing games. The youth program continues with the Sting Choir, directed by Sara Durkin (founder and artistic director of the Merrimack Valley Voices), and a broader youth music program led by Michaela O'Brien and Shannon Eldridge. The Boston-area Polaris Flute Ensemble is in residence at the church and presents regular concerts that are open to the public.
Members frequently cite music as a reason they stay. In a written testimony, one longtime member described the choirs as one of the positive things happening at South Church, alongside the Giving Garden and the monthly offerings. The Quilters, who meet on Wednesday afternoons, contribute the textile art that adorns the chancel throughout the church year as part of the Liturgical Arts Group.
Children, Youth, and Families
Family ministry is led by Taylor Graffum, the Minister of Youth and Families. On Sunday mornings during the program year, the Nursery welcomes children ages 0 to 4 with Bible stories and play (drop-off begins at 9:50 AM), and Sunday School serves children from PreK through sixth grade. The structure is intergenerational at the start: all ages check in together, hear a Bible story, and discuss a reflection question, before dividing into age-appropriate rooms.
Middle School Youth Group (grades 6 to 8) meets on Sunday afternoons from 1:00 to 2:30 PM, and High School Youth Group (grades 9 to 12) meets from 3:30 to 5:00 PM. Both groups gather in the Youth Space on the lower level, with drop-off and pick-up at the back door of the church. Snacks are provided; families are asked to bring nut-free snacks when they can. The rhythms are deliberately relaxed: "Sunday afternoons are for fun, check-ins, and simply showing up as you are that day."
Mission travel is built into the rhythm of the year. A High School Mission Trip takes place during April school vacation; the next one is scheduled for April 18 to 25. In the summer, an award-winning Summer of Service program invites middle and high schoolers into volunteer placements across the Merrimack Valley.
For parents with very young children, nursing is welcome in the sanctuary, in rocking chairs just outside the sanctuary doors, or in the nursery where the service is livestreamed. Activity bags are available for any child who would prefer to stay in worship. The church's strong message to families with young children is essentially: come as you are.
Faith Forum and the Wide Circle of Small Groups
If Sunday worship is the front door, small groups are the living room. The church frames small groups as "genuine, vulnerable spaces for people to connect, to share and to be together in community both in-person and online." There are roughly twenty of them, and the list keeps growing.
Faith Forum is the most prominent. It meets every Sunday at 8:30 AM in the church library and on Zoom, and it works through books, articles, podcasts, and videos on the intersections of faith, social justice, the climate crisis, and spirituality. Recent and ongoing topics have included Bill McKibben's climate writing, Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass, Pope Francis's Laudato Si, Jim Antal's Climate Church, Climate World, David Brooks's How to Know a Person, and a long Advent series. The format is intentionally inclusive: "all voices are heard and valued."
Bible study happens in multiple settings. The Seekers Bible Study meets on the first and third Sundays at 5:00 PM in the library and on Zoom. A Zoom Bible Study gathers on the first Tuesday of the month at 6:00 PM. A separate Bible Study focused on the parables of Jesus meets on the third Tuesday at 6:00 PM on Zoom. A Friday evening Bible Study is also part of the rotation.
Other small groups include the 20/30 group for young adults in their twenties and thirties; Theology on Tap, which gathers monthly at an off-site location to "gather and name God in the world - over a drink"; a Mom's Group for school-aged moms on the first Wednesday of the month; the Men's Breakfast Group on the first and third Fridays at 7:00 AM in the library, open to all men, male-identifying, and non-binary people; the Shirley Stratton Book Group on the second Monday evening; and the Holistic Healing Group, which brings together people drawn to the healing miracles of Jesus and to practices like yoga and Reiki. The Quilters meet on Wednesday afternoons. Concern Carriers, formerly called the Caregivers Gathering, drops the cares and shares the worries of people "only" buying groceries, attending appointments, or organizing finances for a loved one, meeting on the second Sunday at 7:00 PM in the library and on Zoom.
Hands and Feet in the Community
South Church is supported almost entirely by its own families. About 90% of the church's budget comes from members and friends, not from denominational funding, and that shapes the way the congregation thinks about mission. Unlike some churches that are supported by a denomination, South Church is primarily supported by families in the church. Last year, 192 households made a pledge. The average pledge is around $3,000 a year.
The Mission Team stewards relationships with ten Core Mission Partners, each of which receives quarterly disbursements and a designated congregational representative. The list, with the year the partnership started, reads like a map of Greater Lawrence and the wider world:
- ABC-Andover (A Better Chance) - closing the education gap for students of color since 1967 (partner since 1981).
- Bread and Roses - a community wellness program serving meals with dignity in Lawrence (partner since 1980).
- Communities Together - a collaborative of Catholic and Protestant churches that runs the Manos Felices afterschool and summer program for children in Lawrence (partner since 2002).
- The Giving Garden - created by South Church in 2015 on the grounds of the Rolling Ridge retreat center in North Andover to grow organic produce for local food pantries (partner since 2017).
- Habitat for Humanity of Essex County - affordable housing. South Church sold a parcel of land at the back of its cemetery for two Habitat duplexes and sends volunteers at least once a month (partner since 1990).
- Lazarus House - a Christian organization in Lawrence offering a soup kitchen, food pantry, emergency shelter, and transitional housing (partner since 1984).
- Neighbors in Need (NIN) - ten neighborhood food pantries in Lawrence, Andover, and Methuen that have supplied more than 12 million pounds of food since 1983 (partner since 1981).
- Honduras Hope - economic empowerment and infrastructure in rural Honduras (partner since 2013).
- Only a Child - serving disadvantaged youth in Guatemala City, with a focus on male youth at risk of gang involvement (partner since 2005).
- Ti Palmiste - a Christian organization in La Gonave, Haiti that runs a transition housing program for youth aging out of orphan care (partner since 2020).
In 2019, the congregation shifted away from a single weekly offering for church operations toward a Monthly Mission Partner model. Each week, the morning offering goes to the featured partner, the congregation learns about its work, and prayers are offered. Recent Monthly Mission Partners have included Under the Same Moon, Power of Flowers Project, Direct Relief, Village Food Hub, the International Institute of New England, GLAD Law, More Than Words, Elevated Thought, the Refugee Community Alliance, World Central Kitchen, the Prison Book Program, Partners in Health, the Bee Conservancy, NAGLY, the Giving Garden, a SNAP Match at the Andover Farmers Market, and the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence. In 2024, the church gave away more than $43,000 to mission partners through its Sunday offering alone.
On the fifth Sunday of any month, the offering is dedicated to the Pastor Samaritan Fund, an anonymous resource for members and neighbors experiencing a sudden financial hardship. The Mission Team also manages an Impact Fund for emergency situations; past grants have gone to the LGBT Asylum Seekers House in Worcester after storm damage and to Doctors Without Borders after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. The current Monthly Mission Partner at any given time is named prominently on the church's giving page; congregants can donate directly to the partner, text "GiveToSouthChurch" to 73256, or give online through Realm.
The Giving Garden
The Giving Garden deserves its own paragraph because it captures so much of the church's identity in a single project. Started in 2015 on Rolling Ridge land in North Andover, it brings together "diverse communities of volunteers" to grow produce in sustainable, organic ways for local food pantries. Volunteers of all ages are welcome. About 90% of what is harvested goes straight to the warehouse of Neighbors in Need, which operates pantries in Lawrence, Andover, and Methuen. One recent summer, the garden grew more than 4,500 pounds of food and engaged more than 200 youth in the work.
Walking Beside One Another: Mental Health and Pastoral Care
Mental health ministry is treated as integral to the church's calling, not an add-on. The South Church Mental Health page opens with a theological grounding: "As Christians, we are called to care for ourselves and all people as reflections of the Divine image, and this is one important way that we follow that call."
Three ongoing support groups sit under this umbrella. The Mental Health Caregivers Gathering, held on the third Sunday of the month in the library and on Zoom at noon, is a confidential space for parents and guardians of children and adults struggling with mental illness. Concern Carriers, on the second Sunday, is for people whose caregiving looks like "only" buying groceries, attending appointments, or organizing finances. TransParent is a confidential monthly community for parents and guardians of trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming kids.
Pastoral care is offered by all three ministers. "Our ministers provide trained pastoral care and counseling to congregants as needed," the church explains, "typically revolving around important transitional moments in life such as baptism, graduation, marriage, the birth of a child, or the death of a loved one." Pastoral counseling is described as short-term and is offered alongside, not in place of, therapy. Anyone can meet with a minister by phone or on Zoom; Pastoral Care is also available to online worshippers, not just those who attend in person.
The church has also hosted a Mental Health Panel featuring local experts and a Resource Fair connecting members to area providers. The Mental Health page links out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, the Crisis Text Line, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and the NAMI HelpLine.
Standing for Justice
Justice work at South Church is organized into several distinct streams.
The Social Justice Coalition, guided by Micah 6:8 ("do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God"), responds to current events through discussion, prayer, education, advocacy, and direct action. Recent Stand Out rallies have taken the Social Justice Coalition to the Memorial Hall Library in Andover, where members rally "in defense of democracy and humanity." The Coalition has organized educational events on racism, immigration, housing, and criminal justice, and helped coordinate the Faith and Finance seminar on values-aligned investing with the United Church Fund and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.
The Green Team promotes good environmental stewardship in the church's facilities, in members' homes, and in the wider community, and raises awareness of climate change. The church has read Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken together, and the project Drawdown is referenced as a continuing resource.
South Church's interfaith statements have addressed the safety and dignity of immigrants, the reality of racism in the country, and the belonging of transgender and nonbinary people. These statements are not private: they are posted publicly and are read as part of the church's witness.
Affordable housing is concrete at South Church. The church sold a parcel of land at the back of its cemetery to Habitat for Humanity and Andover Community Trust, which built two duplexes on the site - four units of affordable housing - with South Church volunteers continuing to build with Habitat at least monthly.
South Church PRIDE ensures a safe and engaging environment for LGBTQ+ individuals and their families. The team organizes South Church's participation in the annual Andover Pride Parade (co-hosted with Andover DIVERSE) and curates an extensive library of LGBTQ+ resources for all ages. The church is also a host home for the Merrimack Valley PFLAG Parents of Transgender Children Support Group, which meets at South Church and is open to parents and caregivers of transgender children of all ages.
The Building, the Cemetery, and Getting In
South Church occupies a tall, white-steepled historic building on Central Street in the heart of Andover. The sanctuary is the spiritual center, but the building is also a working campus: a lower-level youth space, an elevator serving all floors, accessible parking on both sides, gender-neutral restrooms on the first and second floors, a Fellowship Hall where community meals and seminars take place, and a library with an online catalog that has been carefully curated by the church librarian.
The historic cemetery behind the building is still owned and maintained by the church and is open to the public for visits. The cemetery is also the unlikely backdrop for one of the church's most tangible acts of mission: the affordable housing duplexes built on land sold from the back of the cemetery to Habitat for Humanity.
The church's construction blog, titled "Building for the Future," has become a small institution of its own. Members and friends follow the work in real time: the weathervane was restored in early July; the steeple restoration completed in late June; the clock face was lifted off the tower in mid-June; chandelier extensions were added in mid-June; the sanctuary floor was opened up in late June; a heat-pump update preceded everything in early June; and the sanctuary platform, stairs, and millwork were tackled in July and August. The Quilters' expertise was called on during the renovation. None of this is the sort of detail a casual visitor would notice, but members speak of it with pride: a 300-year-old building is being cared for, piece by piece, for the next 300 years.
The building is also available to rent for outside events, and the church hosts weddings and memorial services as part of its ministry.
Online Church for the Long Distance Member
Worship on YouTube is not treated as a lesser experience but as a parallel one. The church recognizes that members live across the Merrimack Valley, New England, the Northeast, and the United States, and it builds its online presence accordingly. The livestream at 10:00 AM is the Sunday service in real time; recordings remain on the YouTube channel for later viewing. A weekly email called the Buzz keeps online members connected. Prayer requests can be submitted through a form or, during the live service, through the YouTube chat. Pastoral care is available by phone or Zoom to anyone, regardless of location. Online worshippers are welcome to join the church as members.
The Realm online directory serves as the digital front door for giving, pledging, and staying in touch with the congregation's ministry teams.
The People Who Lead
The pastoral team is led by Reverend Dana Allen Walsh, Senior Pastor. She is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, was raised in Trumbull, Connecticut, where her spiritual journey began with the Catholic Church, and felt a call to ministry through UCC youth service trips. She earned a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from the University of Mary Washington. Before Andover, she served for eight years as Minister of Hancock United Church of Christ on the historic Battle Green of Lexington.
Reverend Genevieve Hosterman is the Associate Pastor. A native of Pennsylvania, she graduated with her Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 2020, was recently ordained through the Central Association of Penn Central Conference, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania.
Sherry Tupper serves as Minister of Visitation. Cathy Meyer is Minister of Music, leading the Sanctuary Choir, the Ringers, and the Bee Suite children's music program; she is a Reiki Master Teacher and Acutonics practitioner in addition to her work as an organist and pianist. Taylor Graffum is the Minister of Youth and Families. Michaela O'Brien directs youth music, Shannon Eldridge directs youth choirs, and Sara Durkin - founder and artistic director of the Merrimack Valley Voices, former choral director at North Andover High School, and a 2017 ACDA International Conductors Exchange fellow - directs the Sting Choir.
The support team includes Nora Kay Pelt as Director of Operations and Communications, Andy Brien as Facilities Manager, Amy Morris as Assistant Office Administrator, and Nicole Sirignano as Financial Administrator. The church is also served by an Advocacy Panel of two trained members, Donna Schroeder and Eric Stubenhaus, who receive concerns, complaints, or allegations of misconduct, harassment, or abuse of any type.
Office hours run Monday through Thursday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, at 41 Central Street, Andover, Massachusetts 01810. The main number is 978-475-0321, and individual extensions connect visitors to each staff member.
A Library and a Bookshelf Full of Intent
One of the quiet expressions of who South Church is sits just inside the sanctuary door: the library. Librarian Carol-Georgine West has built a collection that is unusually intentional for a church. The "Dana's Picks" shelf, the LGBTQ+ shelf, the Racial Justice shelf, and the Environment shelf are organized around questions the congregation is actively wrestling with. Children's books on the shelves include Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, Stonewall: A Building, an Uprising, a Revolution, I Am Jazz, Red: A Crayon's Story, and AntiRacist Baby; the adult collection includes Unclobber by Colby Martin, Outside the Lines by Mihmee Kim-Kort, White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, Be the Bridge by LaTasha Morrison, Educated by Tara Westover, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Drawdown by Paul Hawken. Books can be borrowed by email; the librarian will leave a selection outside in a plastic bin for pick-up.
What It Adds Up To
South Church is a 300-year-old building inhabited by a congregation that does not behave its age. On any given week, the schedule holds a Bible study on the climate crisis, a handbell rehearsal, a support group for parents of trans kids, a youth group at the edge of an indoor rock wall, a quilting circle, a Pride planning meeting, a Giving Garden workday, a finance seminar on values-aligned investing, a Sunday afternoon for high schoolers to simply "show up as you are," and a 10:00 AM Sunday service that is at once traditional and contemporary and is broadcast live to members in other parts of the country.
The thing that members return to is the welcome. Pastor Dana Allen Walsh, in her written welcome to visitors, puts it simply: "Sit in our pews or watch our worship service on YouTube and experience the diverse mix of people, the vibrant music, the inspiring preaching, and the wide array of activities. And if it feels like the right spiritual home for you, or if you have questions and want to learn more, don't hesitate to be in touch." In a building that has stood on Central Street for three centuries, that invitation is still being issued every Sunday morning at ten.