A Plymouth Congregation That Helped Build the Town
Terryville Congregational Church, UCC sits at 233 Main Street in the village of Terryville, in the southeast corner of Litchfield County within the town of Plymouth, Connecticut. With roughly 250 to 325 members on the rolls and an average Sunday attendance in the seventies to low hundreds, the church remains a recognizable landmark on Main Street and a steady partner in the life of the surrounding community.
Few congregations in the region can match the part TCC has played in creating local institutions. Members helped found the Plymouth Community Food Pantry, the Eli Terry Retirement Community, and the long-running Terry Nursery School. The church still collects food weekly for the pantry, sends volunteers to serve meals at the Eli Terry community, and stays in close contact with Plymouth Human Services about emerging needs. That posture - partnering with neighbors to keep Plymouth strong - is woven through everything from the Sunday school to the senior men's breakfast.
A Building Rebuilt, A History Reaching Back to 1838
The congregation was organized in 1838, when a group of members from Plymouth Congregational Church set out to form their own church on this end of town. Through most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, TCC served as a focal point of Plymouth life, and its historical roots include an early connection to Yale University and Yale Divinity School that continues through a student-intern program begun in the 1800s.
In December 1967 a fire destroyed the church building. The congregation rebuilt and reopened in 1969, and that building remains the home of the church today. The building holds a Sanctuary for worship, a large Social Hall used for coffee hour, the June Fair, the Christmas Bazaar, Bingo nights, Scout meetings and large gatherings, and a smaller Activity Room that hosts Monday Bible Study, Al-Anon, and many of the smaller meetings. The Social Hall, Narthex, and Sanctuary are wheelchair accessible, with a lift from the Social Hall up to the Narthex and an accessible bathroom. There are three parking areas - a large main lot in front, a back lot, and a few spaces on the right side of the building - each with its own entrance.
Sunday Worship at Ten
Worship is the heart of the week at TCC. Sunday service begins at 10:00 a.m. most of the year; in July and August the service moves earlier to 9:30 a.m. Services follow the Revised Common Lectionary, so the scripture readings on any given Sunday are the same ones being read by other mainline churches across the world. The order of worship is printed in a bulletin handed out by ushers at the door, with cues for when to stand and when to be seated, so a first-time visitor can follow along easily.
The bulletin leads worshippers through prayers, hymns, scripture readings, a children's message, the sermon, and Holy Communion on the first Sunday of each month. Coffee hour in the Social Hall follows the service, usually beginning around 11:15 a.m. Worship is also livestreamed on Facebook Live each Sunday and later posted to the church's YouTube channel for anyone who cannot attend in person.
There is no required attire. Members and guests come in everything from business wear to jeans and a t-shirt. The atmosphere is described by the church itself as warm, multi-generational, and filled with people of all ages from newborns to those in their nineties. Visitors are greeted by ushers and welcomed by a Deacon or Trustee of the month, who can answer questions or introduce them to the pastor.
Rev. Zack and the Staff
The pastor is the Rev. Zachary Mabe, who has served the congregation since August 2005. A native of North Carolina, Rev. Zack came north in 2000 to attend Yale Divinity School, where he earned a Master of Divinity in 2003 and a Master of Sacred Theology with a focus on liturgy and homiletics in 2005. He was ordained in 2003 and previously served as a part-time pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church in New Haven. He is a trained facilitator of Prepare-Enrich for pre-marital guidance and also serves on the Committee on Ministry for the Farmington Valley Association of the Southern New England Conference of the UCC. He is currently completing a Doctor of Ministry degree. Rev. Zack believes in the love of God in Jesus Christ, the power of prayer, the wonder of music, and the gift of laughter.
Jennifer Zalaski, A.C.E., has directed Christian Education at TCC since 2002. A native of Terryville with an Associate in Christian Education from the Connecticut Conference of the UCC, she oversees Sunday school, Confirmation, and Vacation Bible School, working alongside the Christian Education Committee and a team of volunteer teachers.
Paul Bilodeau joined as Director of Music in November 2022. He directs the choir and music program and is the primary contact for musical gifts within worship. The church secretary is Tracy Fitzpatrick, who has held the role since January 2020, and the financial records are kept by bookkeeper Jona Meta. The church office is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and the main phone line - (860) 589-0182 - reaches the office.
Children, Sunday School, and Confirmation
Sunday school at TCC runs during the worship hour from the second Sunday in September through the third Sunday in May, with classes for children age three through high school. The whole congregation starts in the Sanctuary together at 10:00 a.m. After about fifteen minutes, the children are invited forward for a brief children's message with the pastor. The children then take a children's offering, say a prayer, and walk to the classrooms adjacent to the Sanctuary. They rejoin their parents in coffee hour at the end of the service.
Curriculum is ecumenical and non-denominational - the church uses the Gather Round curriculum alongside the interactive Godly Play resources and Sparkhouse materials. A recent addition is a six-week Holy Communion class for children. A nursery is available for children two and under, and parents are always welcome to keep their children with them in the Sanctuary. The program follows safe-church policies to provide a secure environment, and parents are invited to attend class with their student the first time to observe.
Confirmation is offered to students in seventh through ninth grade and meets on Sundays at 11:15 a.m. in the Social Hall. After a year of study, worship, retreat, fellowship, outreach, and hands-on service, students are invited to confirm their baptism and become voting members of the congregation. The day of Confirmation is the first Sunday in June.
Beyond Sunday school, middle and high school youth gather for a Youth Fellowship that combines outings, retreats, fellowship meetings, and community service projects. The group typically meets twice a month after worship for lunch and an activity. Older youth also take part in the church's annual mission trip and other service projects.
Music, Drama, and the Arts
Music is woven into worship at TCC. The Music program includes a Sanctuary Choir for adults, a Cherub Choir for younger children, a Youth Choir, and a Handbell Choir, and the church regularly invites soloists, instrumentalists, and guest groups to share their gifts. The Hot Cat Jazz Band is among the regular guest ensembles that have joined worship. Worship is also enriched by the church's Interpretive Dance Team, "Sticking with Jesus," and its Puppet Ministry, the OMP (Oh My Puppet!) Team.
For more than a decade, TCC has also run a community theatre program, Theatre at TCC, that has staged productions including Cinderella's Glass Slipper, The Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka, Oliver, It's a Wonderful Life, Into the Woods, A Christmas Carol: Live Radio Show, Seussical, and a virtual Wenceslas in December 2020. Casts and crews have included elementary, middle, and high school students from across the region, and tickets are sold through the church's online box office.
Bible Study, Women's Fellowship, and Men's Fellowship
A weekly Bible Study gathers on Mondays at 1:00 p.m. in the Activity Room (entering through the rear office door). When needed, the group also meets by Zoom or conference call so that members at home or away can take part.
The Women's Fellowship is known as the Spirited Sisters. The women gather for an annual retreat (usually the first weekend in May), devotional and fellowship meetings, and the creation of care packages for people in need. Closely related is the Church Mice group, who love to bake and cook for church events - including the annual Christmas Bazaar, the April Roast Beef Dinner, the June Fair, and the Terryville Country Fair. Men are welcome to join in as well, where they are affectionately called Church Rats.
Men's Fellowship meets quarterly for a men's breakfast, with dates announced in the newsletter and on the email list.
Outreach Near and Far
The church's outreach runs on two tracks at once - keeping Plymouth and Bristol healthy, and reaching out to the wider world.
Locally, TCC supports the Plymouth Community Food Pantry through weekly food collections and through fundraising events such as the long-running 24-Hour Famine for high school youth. Since 2005, the Famine has raised at least one thousand dollars each year and as much as six thousand, with recent proceeds going entirely to the local food pantry. The church also partners with Terryville High School on the annual Harvest Pack event, helps supply meals at Eli Terry Retirement Community and at Gosinski Park, supports the Animal Rescue Foundation, and works with Plymouth Human Services to meet emerging needs. With help from the Thomaston Savings Bank Foundation, TCC has provided meals to people in need, and the congregation has helped local families with back-to-school supplies, Christmas gifts, and Easter Baskets.
The church is also a participant in the Plymouth Keys for Kindness program. From time to time during worship, a member presents a symbolic key to someone in the congregation or in the community whose kindness has made a real difference - a physician, a teacher, a volunteer, a neighbor - and the whole church pauses to give thanks.
For military and veterans, TCC collects weekly donations that go toward care packages for local servicemembers in partnership with Terryville High School's Support our Soldiers campaign, supports the local American Legion Plymouth Post 20 and the Soldiers, Sailors and Marines Fund, and has raised more than five thousand dollars for the Veterans Strong Community Center in Bristol. The church also takes part in Operation Christmas Child.
Beyond Plymouth, TCC supports the UCC's "Our Church's Wider Mission," which funds a range of global causes, and the congregation maintains a KIVA account that provides small loans to people in need around the world.
An Annual Mission Trip
In addition to ongoing local outreach, the church takes an annual mission trip that benefits a regional or local cause. Recent trips include work with Mission at the Eastward in Farmington, Maine, where volunteers restored homes for people in need in the greater Farmington region; a return trip to Maine in 2026 that grew to 49 participants, 26 of them youth, representing six regional churches; and a trip to Mayfield, Kentucky, to help rebuild homes damaged by a tornado. In earlier years the congregation sent three to five trips to South Dakota, working with Simply Smiles on the LaPlant reservation, and the church has supported missions in Kenya, Ghana, the Philippines, and Uganda, including a former student intern's work in Uganda.
In addition to the mission trip, the church has held an annual Benefit event that has raised thousands of dollars for the Connecticut Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, Smilow Cancer Hospital, Connecticut Children's, the Veterans Strong Community Center, and Plymouth Parks and Recreation.
Scouting, Al-Anon, Bingo, and a Building That Serves the Town
The building is a gathering place for the wider community as well as the congregation. Cub Scout Pack 75 meets at the church on Mondays from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. for scouts in first grade and older. Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts of Troop 75, for ages eleven to seventeen, meet on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in the Social Hall from September through June.
Al-Anon meets at the church on Thursday mornings at 10:00 in the Activity Room. The group is open to anyone whose life has been affected by someone else's drinking, and meetings are confidential and anonymous.
Monthly Bingo nights bring the community into the Social Hall. Doors open between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m., and BINGO starts at 7:00 p.m. Proceeds support the church's ministry. The June Fair (held on the first or second Saturday of June) and the Christmas Bazaar (the second or third Saturday of November) are long-running community events, with food, crafts, vendors, auctions, music, and a booth at the Terryville Country Fair. The Social Hall and Activity Room are also available to rent for birthday parties, wedding receptions, bridal and baby showers, retirement parties, and family reunions.
Vacation Bible School and the Summer Calendar
Each summer TCC hosts an ecumenical Vacation Bible School - a community-wide program that gathers about one hundred children and teen helpers for a week of Bible study, music, crafts, theatre, and games. VBS is open to students ages three through grade five, with crew leaders and station helpers drawn from sixth grade through high school. Sessions run from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. each day, and the program is usually held the week after July 4th.
Becoming a Member
Membership is open to all. As a congregational church within the United Church of Christ, TCC is governed by its own members through committees, a church council, and an annual congregation meeting. New member orientations are held in April and October, with new members received in May and November. The UCC's national offices are in Cleveland, Ohio, and the congregation is part of the Southern New England Conference of the UCC, which includes Silver Lake Conference Center in Sharon, Connecticut.
Beliefs and Worship Style
TCC describes itself as a mainline Protestant congregation in the United Church of Christ, with much in common with American Baptist, ELCA Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal churches. The church's own mission statement commits it to worshiping God, teaching and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Judeo-Christian faith story, celebrating the sacraments, building fellowship within the church universal, offering loving service to others, and striving for righteousness, justice, and peace.
The congregation uses the United Church of Christ Statement of Faith in the form of a doxology, which affirms God as the creator and sustainer of life, Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen Savior who shares the human lot and reconciles the world, and the Holy Spirit as the giver of the church across every age, tongue, and race. The UCC's core values listed by the congregation include belonging to Christ, working toward a more just and loving world, unity at Baptism and Holy Communion, listening for the still-speaking voice of God, being a united and uniting church, and being a people of extravagant welcome. The church celebrates two sacraments - Baptism, which is offered on request, and Holy Communion, which is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month and on holy days such as Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Christmas Eve. The church also takes part in ecumenical events with other Plymouth congregations, including Lenten Lunches on Tuesdays during Lent, the Easter sunrise service, Thanksgiving Eve worship, and the Christmas Walk on the first Sunday in December.
A Church That Stays Connected
Communication is steady and personal. A weekly email goes out from the pastor with news and announcements, a monthly newsletter is published and archived online, and the church's Facebook and Instagram pages carry photos, event notices, and livestream links. The Sunday bulletin always lists the upcoming week's activities, and a printed Annual Report summarizes the work of committees and staff across the year. Online giving is available through PayPal and Venmo (find them at @TerryvilleCongregationalChurch), and donations can also be mailed to the church office.