Abington Congregational Church
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The Abington Congregational Church in Pomfret, Connecticut, has the oldest ecclesiastical building in the State of Connecticut. The State has installed an official historical marker across the street from the church. It was built in 1751, and is one of the few surviving examples of the peg and beam construction typical of 18th century New England. In 1977 it was included on the National Register of Historic Places.
A parsonage for the church was built in 1851, and an adjacent parish hall was built in 1951. Today it is the spiritual home to a small, but thriving congregation, and is member of the United Church of Christ.
The church's website [1] includes records of interest to genealogists and historians. The Old Cemetery of the Abington Church was used from 1760 to 1900, and includes gravestones of 82 Revolutionary War soldiers. The New Cemetery includes many Civil War gravemarkers, and is still in use today. Lists from both cemeteries are included on the church's website, as well as a record of all Civil War veterans and units from Pomfret, Connecticut.
The current pastor is the Reverend Bruce A. Hedman, Ph.D., who graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1980. He served churches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Union and Hampton, Connecticut, before coming to Abington in 1988.
