Abstract In February 1786, thirty-three members would form the First Congregational Church of Gardner, led by town physician Rev. Jonathan Osgood. In 1830, there was a split in the congregation which resulted in a separate, Evangelical Church. They would form together again in 1846, adopting the creed of the Evangelical Church. In the 1880s, the church started to take part in the Christian Endeavor movement and the Young Ladies’ Missionary Society began teaching English to the rising population of...

Abstract Rev. T. Thomas Boates received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Nazarene Theological School and a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Boston University School of Theology. Tom was the pastor at the East Baltimore Church of the Nazarene in Baltimore, Maryland, the North Congregational Church in Bedford, Massachusetts, and the First Federated Church in Beverly, Massachusetts. Tom joined the board of the American Congregational Association in 1997 and served as the Board Chair from 1999...