What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 2pm Tuesday 9am - 2pm Wednesday 9am - 2pm Thursday 9am - 2pm Friday 9am - 2pm Sunday 10:25am - 11:30am

First Parish UU Hingham Old Ship Church

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Hingham, MA
First Parish UU Hingham Old Ship Church

First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Hingham, MA. Our meeting house has stood on Main Street since 1681. In 1961, Unitarians merged with Universalists.

Old Ship welcomes and affirms persons of diverse backgrounds and interests, regardless of race, class, ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender, or political belief. Our community encourages personal spiritual growth through worship, discussion, mutual support, and friendship. Although as a congregation we do not adhere to a specific creed, we do affirm the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Princip

les and Sources, and we support each individual's unique search for truth and meaning. It is the oldest wooden building in the United States used continuously for ecclesiastic purposes, and it is the only meeting house built in the 17th century that still exists. The first members of our congregation were Puritans. They began an evolution toward liberalism in the years between 1717 and 1787, when Ebenezer Gay served as their minister, until, in the early 1800s, they embraced Unitarianism. This page is a place to find out about and discuss topics related to our congregation. By posting on our page, you agree to our posting/ commenting policy. We reserve the right to delete posts containing any of the following elements:
- profanity
- misinformation
- spam
- personal attack/disrespect towards anyone
- public shaming

08/25/2026

Please join us on 8/23/26 for our Sunday Services at 10:30 A.M. with Karen Churchill: "Fear"
Karen Churchill will be speaking of the duplicitous nature of fear.

08/22/2026

The oldest church building in America still in continuous use is not in Boston, and from the outside it barely looks like a church at all. ⛪

The Old Ship Meeting House in Hingham went up in 1681. It is squat and nearly square, about 45 feet by 35 feet with 20 foot posts, wrapped in plain white clapboard with no columns, no ornament and no steeple. Puritans did not build churches, they built meetinghouses, and this one served as both the place of worship and the place where the town did its business. The only flourish is the small square cupola on top of the hipped roof with its spire and iron weathervane.

The name comes from what is over your head when you walk in. The roof is a Gothic hammerbeam frame, curved oak timbers cut from bowed limbs grown in the local forest and hewn by axe, no two of them exactly the same dimension. Assembled, the whole thing looks like the hull of a ship turned upside down. Local tradition says ship carpenters framed it, which would explain a lot. 🚢

The style is Elizabethan Gothic, brought over in the memories of settlers from Hingham in England. It has been standing on that spot for 345 years and a congregation still meets in it every week, which is the part that gets me. Not a museum. A working building that happens to predate the country by almost a hundred years.

Have you been inside to look up at that roof, and did it feel as much like a ship as people say?

08/18/2026

Please join us on 8/23/26 for our Sunday Services at 10:30 A.M. with Davalene Cooper.
"Suffering as a Path to Love"

During the past year, Davalene Cooper has been enrolled in "Essentials of Engaged Living," a course offered by Richard Rohr's Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico. She will share the questions she has explored through this amazing course, focusing especially on the relationship between great suffering and great love.

08/13/2026

Please join us on 8/16/26 for our Sunday Services at 10:30 A.M. with Nina Wellford – “When Fresh Eyes Meet the Default Brain”

No matter our age, we tend to rely on our “default brain:” it makes life easier and a lot more comfortable. What happens when we look at things with fresh eyes? Come explore the possibilities with Nina Wellford.

08/06/2026

Please join us on 8/9/26 for our Sunday Services at 10:30 A.M. with

Ellen Curtin – Laughter Yoga Get Your Happy On!

Laughter Yoga was started by a medical doctor from Mumbai, India in 1995. It is a unique concept where anyone can laugh for no reason without relying on humor, jokes or comedy and the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter.

The reason we call it Laughter Yoga is because it combines laughter exercises with yogic breathing.

Just a few of the benefits of Laughter Yoga:

1) Laughter reduces levels of stress-related hormones making it a great stress buster.

2) Endorphins are released when you laugh, making it a natural painkiller.

3) Laughter enhances brain function. It activates higher cortical functioning while improving mental clarity, focus and concentration.

During a Laughter Yoga session, the leader and participants engage in laughter exercises, laughter meditation and a guided relaxation.

There are thousands of Laughter Yoga clubs all over the world and is done in schools, corporations, cancer centers, nursing homes and prisons.

Laughter is a universal language that transcends all barriers.

07/28/2026

Please join us this Sunday, August 2nd at 10:30 A.M. for our

ANNUAL SUMMER POETRY SERVICE at Old Ship Church Meeting House

This year's poetry service is entitled "Gladness of Heart", or how not to lose heart as we ride the waves of destabilizing change.

Elizabeth Torrey will bring news from the heart as she shares the wisdom in words that nurture hope, patience, and kindness from poetry’s truth tellers.

A bouquet of summer poems will round out the service.

All are welcome.

07/23/2026

On Saturday mornings, Hingham’s Bell Tower (beside the Old Ship Meetinghouse) brightens the neighborhood with change-ringing, a mathematical pattern of sound.

Join us at Old Ship Meeting House (90 Main Street) at 10:30 AM on Sunday, July 26th, as Louise Smith helps us explore how change-ringing enters other aspects of our lives.

07/17/2026

Please join us at the Old Ship Meetinghouse this Sunday at 10:30am as we welcome Kirsten Snow, Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide. Kirsten will share readings, guide us in meditation, and present her musings about "where the water meets the sand".

All are welcome as we continue our Summer lay led services followed by fellowship under the trees.

07/09/2026

Please join us this Sunday, July 12th inside the Meeting House at 10:30 a.m.!

All are welcome to attend a joyful BLUEGRASS MUSIC summer service at 10:30 a.m. this coming Sunday, July 12, in the historic Old Ship Church at 90 Main Street in Hingham Square!

This event will be held inside the historic Meeting House and is open to all. Come enjoy a 'musical gift for your spirit' at 10:30 a.m.

07/02/2026

The Sacred Text meditation group is about to complete its study of the Tao te Ching in the next week, a journey together of almost four ( ! )years. Later this month, on July 23, we plan to start our study of the Muslim holy book, The Qur’an. As we make the transition we would like to invite other members of the congregation to join us

This group is part of Old Ship’s Life Learning program. We meet on Zoom from 4 to 5:30 on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. We typically do a brief reading, then meditate for 15 minutes and then discuss the portion of the text we have selected. This group started our study of the Tao with no expertise of that text or its religion but had a wonderfully enriching experience together. We start our journey into the Qur’an similarly equipped.

If you would like more information about this please contact Rich Elliott or call Lisa in the office at 781-749-1679.

Address

14 Main Street
Hingham, MA
02043

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 2pm
Tuesday	9am - 2pm
Wednesday	9am - 2pm
Thursday	9am - 2pm
Friday	9am - 2pm
Sunday	10:25am - 11:30am

Telephone

+17817491679

Website

http://oldshipchurch.org/

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