About Our Church
Our Mission
Our mission is to foster a loving Christian community
The mission of Kensington Congregational Church is to foster a loving Christian community. Striving to follow Jesus by serving others, KCC aims to share the message of God’s hope, and blessing of divine peace.
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What We Believe
United in Spirit and inspired by God’s grace, we welcome all, love all, and seek justice for all. We are the United Church of Christ.
- We believe in loving our neighbors
- We believe in amazing, transforming grace
- We believe in living as witnesses to God’s love
- We believe our hearts can be changed
- We believe the church provides us with the foundation to become a new creation in God
- We believe in finding joy in fellowship with one another
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Our History
Our Congregational fellowship began in Kensington in 1737 when we separated from Hampton to form our own parish. Because church and town were one, this was the beginning of the town of Kensington as well.
Our first meeting house was built on the spot where the Universalist Church building now stands but was dismantled and a new meeting house built in 1771where the town hall is today.
By 1846 that building was in such disrepair that it was taken down and the membership of the church declined. But in 1859 the Congregational Church was revived and reorganized, with 18 members, and from then on it thrived. A new building was erected in 1865 at our present site, on land known as the “Church Parade”, where the local militia had drilled in colonial days. As the church grew a new wing was added in the 1950s to make space for a Sunday School program.
Today we are very much a community church, the only active church in Kensington. In 1957 the Congregational Christian Church joined with the Evangelical and Reformed Church to become the United Church of Christ, of which we are a part.
Our Pastor
KCC News & Community Newsletter
Worship Times
Events
Directions
The Church is located at 108 Amesbury Road (Route 150) in the center of Kensington.
Kensington Congregational Church
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Our Minister: Rev. Jeff MacDonald
Pastor
Rev. G. Jeffrey MacDonald began his ministry in Kensington in November, 2020, serving as Interim Pastor as we go through the process of finding a new settled minister. He holds degrees from Brown University and Yale Divinity School. In addition to his 20 hours per week in Kensington, he works as a journalist, author, and church consultant.
Rev. Jeff has covered topics from agriculture and local government to history-making events, such as the Whitey Bulger and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trials for USA Today and the Sandy Hook massacre for The Christian Science Monitor. However, his real writing passion is for exploring what works in our fast-changing world, writing about positive trends in congregational life for such publications at The Christian Century, Religion News Service and Duke University’s Faith & Leadership magazine.
He is the author of two books: Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul (Basic Books, 2010) and Part-Time is Plenty: Thriving without Full-Time Clergy (WJK Press, 2020). Having studied dozens of churches that do well with part-time clergy, he leads workshops for congregations and denominations on how to structure part-time ministries and enhance vitality within those models. This last book is particularly important for KCC since at this time we are a part-time minister church.
Join us every Sunday at 10AM at KCC in person!
Or join us online via Zoom