NMAR Exhibit Team Visits Religious Structures

As we continue design work on the traveling exhibit that will curate the history of religious freedom in America by exploring the religious architecture of minority religions, the team visited some of the religious structures that will be featured. 

"Old Ship Church is a vibrant Unitarian Universalist congregation that dates back to its Puritan roots from 1635." It is the only surviving 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in the United States. We attended a Sunday Service, and the congregation was extremely welcoming, even providing us with a tour of the building and recounting stories of their stewardship of the Church, the Bell Tower, and the cemetery grounds. Walking into the church felt like stepping back in time. Old Ship Church is, according to The New York Times, "the oldest continuously worshiped-in church in North America and the only surviving example in this country of the English Gothic style of the 17th century..." The interior of the church is a Gothic open-timber construction, resembling the shape and ribs of a ship's hull, and smelling of centuries-old wood. Colleen got to ring the bell at the beginning of service.

You can feel the community as soon as you approach the brick exterior of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia. We joined the congregation for a Sunday mass in July of this year. The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic church and congregation located at 419 South 6th Street in Center City. The congregation, founded in 1794, is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the nation. "The church was proposed in 1791 by members of the Free African Society of Philadelphia, including Absalom Jones, out of a desire to create a space for autonomous African-American worship and community in the city. The desire to create the church was strengthened in 1792, after African-American members of St. George's Methodist Church walked out due to racial segregation in the worship services."  

Mother Bethel recently appointed its first female Pastor, Rev. Carolyn C. Cavaness, in 2024, and she was nothing short of inspiring, enlightening, and incendiary. Music was a critical component of service, aligned with worship itself, and soon we were singing, clapping, exchanging handshakes, and rejoicing along with the congregants. We had a wonderful tour of their small museum, and got to see objects related to the founders, as well as original paintings, Bibles, deeds, stained glass, and artworks created to celebrate the historic church.