A church in the heart of the city, with a heart for the city

Houses of worship older than America outlasted wars, schisms, lawsuits

May 29, 2026

[Religion News Service] On Ash Wednesday this year, about a dozen people attended a noon service at Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1723. Two days later, a handful of worshippers took part in a Shabbat service at Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, dedicated in 1763.  Congregations participating in sacred rituals — it is something both houses of worship have been doing longer than the United States has existed. Such places of worship are rare. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research estimates that of the 370,000 religious congregations in the U.S. today, only about 1% existed at the country’s founding. When the country declared independence in 1776,  there were 3,228 houses of worship across the Colonies. The United States was already religiously diverse. Congregationalists led the pack with about 670 congregations, or just over 20% of the total. Presbyterians weren’t far behind (18%), followed by Baptists and Episcopalians (each about 15%), and Quakers at nearly 10%. Methodists had a following at 2%, Catholics were just under 2%, and there were a handful of synagogues and more than a dozen Mennonite congregations, according to sociologists Rodney Stark and Roger Finke. Most of them dissolved due to internal conflicts, financial strains, aging membership and/or the impact of war. Many of the places that survived, like Old North Church and Touro, did so by continuing to gather, whether in ornate or simple buildings, or when pews were full or had just a few worshippers. “I think that’s how faith, church and faith, is perpetuated — it’s not, in a way, by big, splashy events,” said the Rev. Matthew P. Cadwell, vicar of Old North Church. “It’s by people who really want to take the time to reflect on what it means to be human and what it means to be a person of God in a complicated world.” Quite a few other houses of worship that pre-date the United States are still active today. Below, Religion News Service offers portraits of four. Old North Church, Boston, Massachusetts Founded: 1723 Affiliation: Episcopal Church Famous for: Lanterns in steeple marked start of Revolutionary War  BOSTON — Cadwell welcomed just about a dozen people to this year’s noon Ash Wednesday service. Knowing there could be some tourists in the pews, Cadwell, the church’s leader since 2020, was careful to offer guidance after the first hymn for those unfamiliar with the standing, sitting and kneeling practices of The Episcopal Church. “There are kneelers in the pews — they’re exceptionally uncomfortable, and so you will feel penitent, for sure, if you use them,” he said. “I’ll be kneeling in the front on behalf of all of us, if that works, but kneeling yourselves, if you like, or stand — whichever, works for you.” Old North started as something of an outlier — a Church of England congregation in a city dominated by Puritan-rooted Congregationalists. Today it offers a spiritual space to Boston-area residents and tourists from around the world, including people from the country that once opposed colonists in the Revolutionary War. “We’re honoring our neighbors,” Cadwell said. Jenifer Miller, a native of Rochester, England, joined Old North Church a couple of years ago. Stepping into the box pews that date to 1723, Miller said she thinks of those who worshipped in the same place centuries ago. “You imagine all the people that have sat there before and all that, and we all have the worries, we all have the wants, we all have the loves and the sadness all through life,” she said. “So I enjoyed the thought that this is not new. It’s been around for a long time.” The church’s revolutionary history is undoubtedly a draw for tourists as well as locals. It was from Old North’s steeple that two lanterns were hung in 1775, signaling that British forces were advancing by sea — the moment Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized as “one if by land, two if by sea.”  Cadwell, who has a Ph.D. in Anglican history and theology, said the church’s understanding of that night has evolved: It’s now believed that sexton Robert Newman was joined by Capt. John Pulling Jr., a vestry member and friend of Paul Revere, to climb the stairs and ladders and hang the lights from what was then the tallest structure in the city. After the service, Carol Ball, a vestry member in charge of ensuring Old North’s brass chandeliers are kept shining, said the church embraces all visitors, whether they come for a tour or choose to become members. “It’s usually 50-50, I’d say, between congregation and tourists,” she said. “It’s a very nice mix.” First Baptist Church in America, Providence, Rhode Island Founded: 1638 Famous for: Nation’s oldest Baptist congregation Denomination: American Baptist Churches USA PROVIDENCE — “Whether you’re sober or you wish you were, whether you’re straight or gay or cis or trans, or whether you are a citizen of this nation or not, in this place, you are a citizen in the realm of God.” That is how the Rev. Jamie Washam begins the Communion service at First Baptist Church in America. Her words, she explains, are intentional: “We all have the same beeline to the divine.” The sentiment is baked into the DNA of the church. Roger Williams, a Puritan pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, was excommunicated for his views on church-state separation and then gathered a group of worshippers to start a new church in Providence. At a time when Massachusetts had a state religion, the Congregational Church, Williams concluded that “the only proper form of baptism was believer’s baptism, and so he baptized his congregation, about 20 people all together,” said J. Stanley Lemons, author of “First: The First Baptist Church in America.” (Due to Williams’ influence, Rhode Island never decreed a state religion.) Williams left the Rhode Island church after a few months (though he continued to preach). But it endured, surviving internal divisions and opening its “meetinghouse” doors regularly, including for historic gatherings. Standing […]