A Brief History of the Church
June 1770: The First Church of Christ in Norwich, Vermont was gathered and organized by the Reverend Peter Powers. He served several parishes along the Connecticut River and traveled to them by canoe. He was a revolutionary with a price on his head who later moved to Deer Isle Maine.
August 1775: The Reverend Lyman Potter was ordained and settled in as the first minister.
1817: The church was built on the green facing west. The Paul Revere bell was hung in the belfry; it is the earliest in Vermont and the only one cast during Revere's lifetime. The steeple clock, made by Stephen Hasham, was crafted about this time. Hasham was a well-known clockmaker from Charlestown, NH
1852: The church was moved to its present location and enlarged. In the old location,
1949: The first Norwich Fair was held to begin raising money for the Parish Hall addition, which was built the following year.
1957: The Congregationalists agreed to join with the Evangelical and reformed Church to form a union. to be known as the United Church of Christ. The Norwich church approved this union in 1961.
May 1998: Mary Brownlow became the Associate Pastor of the church.
December 2001: Douglas S. Moore became the Pastor of the church.
On May 1, 2005 a Congregational Meeting passed the following resolution : We, the members of the Norwich Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, declare ourselves to be an open and affirming congregation.
On May 1, 2005 a Capital Campaign was begun to pay for the construction of an improved Parish Hall, Church Offices and Sunday School classrooms, and an elevator which were completed in 2007.
January 2009: Doug Moore retired, and Rev. Howard (Howie) Tobak became the Interim Pastor.
In 2009, a decision was made to return to a single minister model for the pastoral leadership of the church. Mary Brownlow concluded her ministry as Associate Pastor on January 31, 2010.
The Rev. Jonathan New served as interim pastor from January through May 2010.
On May 23, 2010 the congregation voted to call the Rev. Mary Brownlow as pastor. She began as pastor on June 15, 2010.
