200th Anniversary of the First Parish Church - September 27

200th Anniversary of the First Parish Church - September 27 WHEREAS , First Parish Church was established in 1674, the first colonial religious congregation serving the spiritual needs of the area that over 150 years later would be incorporated as the City of Portland; and WHEREAS , the current church building known as “the Stone Church” was built in the 1820s and dedicated by Rev. Ichabod Nichols on February 8, 1826 as “a monument to liberality,” with a call for actions that would bring joy and peace to our children's children; and WHEREAS , the predecessor building “Old Jerusalem” was the site of Maine’s Constitutional Convention in October 1819 that led to the document strongly rooted in political independence, religious freedom and popular control of government; and WHEREAS , because of its stone construction, the First Parish Meeting House was one of the few buildings that survived Portland’s Great Fire of 1866, though the wooden buildings surrounding the Meeting House were consumed by the fire; and WHEREAS , First Parish has a long history of activism and support for equal rights throughout Maine and the Nation, including its involvement in the abolitionist movement, its lead