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First Parish Dorchester is a Unitarian Universalist church in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Emigrants from Dorchester, Dorset and the southwest of England founded the town of Dorchester March 30, 1630〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url=http://www.masshome.com/events.html )〕 and established the church in 1631. The first church building was an crude log cabin thatched with grass.〔 As well as the church, the Puritans founded the first elementary school supported by public money in the New World. They held the first town meeting at the church, which determined policy through open and frequent discussion. The congregation's fifth building burned in February 1896, and the current building was completed in 1897. As of spring 2015, First Parish completed the third of five phases in a $7 million restoration project, which began November of 2006. The most recent phase included accessibility improvements, exterior repairs and painting, and steeple restoration.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.firstparishdorchester.org/pages/restoration )〕 Future work will include renovation and office reorganization in the parish hall, and a significant footprint expansion to provide much-needed community, classroom, and activity space. ==Social Justice== The church played a strong role as the hub of political and social life in Dorchester. The original Puritan congregation is still remembered for establishing the country’s first tax-supported, free public school in 1636. The first four meetinghouses acted as Dorchester’s town hall. The fifth building, built in 1816, was the host to many social justice leaders, such as William Lloyd Garrison and Theodore Parker, because of First Parish’s long-standing pastor Reverend Nathaniel Hall who was dedicated to the abolitionist cause. In the 1880s, the work of First Parish’s minister, Christopher R. Eliot, and the Fields Corner Congregational Church’s minister, Reverend T.J. Volentine, inspired First Parish members and friends to organize the Fields Corner Industrial School for local children, which evolved into (Dorchester House ), a multi-service health center. Today, First Parish is an important resource for Dorchester’s Vietnamese, African-American, Caribbean, Irish, Latino, Haitian, and Cape Verdean residents. The staff collaborates with educators, health-care providers and other local groups to alleviate hunger, violence, racism, and other effects of poverty. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「First Parish Church of Dorchester」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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