By Meredith McCulloch
First Parish in Bedford has been named a “Breakthrough Congregation” for 2012 by the Unitarian Universalist Association, the association’s national organization of local parish churches.
The award is in recognition of First Parish’s sustained growth in membership over the past several years. Church leaders hope that the breakthrough congregations will serve as examples for other congregations wishing to attract new members.
Membership at First Parish has nearly doubled in the last 20-years. To serve the expanded congregation, First Parish has hired a full-time Director of Religious Education, expanded its music program and added a second Parish Minister. Most recently the crowded sanctuary resulted in a move to two Sunday morning services.
In addition to increasing the church’s membership, the church has extended its hand beyond the Bedford Common. Senior minister John Gibbons likes to say, “The church has left the building,” referring to services offered beyond church members to veterans, Iraqi refugees, seniors in assisted living, and even to a partner church in the village of Abasfalva in Transylvania.
For more information, read about First Parish in the UUWorld magazine
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