Churches in Boston

Boston's historic churches

• Old South Meeting House, Downtown Crossing — founded 1669; the site where Samuel Adams launched the Boston Tea Party protest; one of the oldest Puritan meetinghouses in America; now a museum and active site for public discourse.
• Old North Church (Christ Church), North End — founded 1723; the oldest surviving church building in Boston; the site from which Paul Revere arranged the "one if by land, two if by sea" signal lanterns; still an active Episcopal parish and National Historic Landmark.
• Park Street Church, Boston Common — founded 1809; built on what was once the town granary; historic evangelical Congregationalist church at the corner of Park and Tremont; William Lloyd Garrison delivered his first major antislavery address here in 1829; still an active evangelical congregation with a strong commitment to orthodox Reformed theology.
• Trinity Church, Copley Square — the architectural masterpiece of Henry Hobson Richardson (1877); one of the most celebrated church buildings in America; Episcopal cathedral with a distinguished tradition of preaching; Phillips Brooks, author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was its most famous rector.
• Arlington Street Church, Back Bay — historic Unitarian Universalist congregation; important in the abolitionist movement; Boston's oldest Unitarian congregation.

Contemporary evangelical churches in Boston

• Park Street Church — continues as one of the most theologically serious evangelical congregations in the city; Reformed evangelical; expository preaching; strong connections to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary nearby.
• Emmanuel Gospel Center — a remarkable urban ministry organization in the South End; deep roots in Boston's multiethnic communities; significant research and development work on the Black church in Boston.
• City on a Hill Church — evangelical church plant named after John Winthrop's famous sermon; multisite; diverse congregation; urban ministry focus.
• Highrock Church — evangelical church with multiple Boston-area campuses; strong young adult and college ministry given Boston's enormous student population.
• Reservoir Church, Cambridge — evangelical congregation in Cambridge near Harvard and MIT; intellectual engagement with faith; serves Boston's significant academic community.

Catholic Boston

The Archdiocese of Boston was for most of the 20th century the dominant institution in Boston civic life — the most powerful Catholic archdiocese in America, shaped by massive Irish and Italian immigration in the 19th century. The clergy abuse crisis that broke publicly in 2002 (the "Spotlight" story) shook the archdiocese profoundly. Catholic institutional presence remains significant, but attendance and cultural authority have declined substantially.

• Cathedral of the Holy Cross, South End — the mother church of the Archdiocese of Boston; neo-Gothic building; historically the center of Irish Catholic Boston
• Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission Church), Mission Hill — beloved Boston landmark; active pilgrimage site; stunning architecture; strong neighborhood identity
• Saint Leonard Church, North End — historic Italian American Catholic parish in the oldest neighborhood in Boston
• Growing Latino Catholic parishes — serving Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Central American communities in East Boston, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain

Boston's diverse Christian communities

Boston's large international population — students, immigrants, and professionals — has produced a remarkably diverse church landscape:

• Haitian evangelical churches — one of the largest Haitian communities in the country; dozens of Haitian Baptist and Pentecostal congregations in Mattapan and Dorchester
• Korean churches — Boston's Korean community supports several large Korean-language Presbyterian and evangelical congregations
• Brazilian evangelical churches — significant Brazilian immigrant community with growing evangelical presence
• African evangelical congregations — Nigerian, Ghanaian, and Cape Verdean evangelical churches throughout the metro

Frequently asked questions

Is Boston a religious city?

Boston was once the most intensely religious city in America — the Puritan experiment was centered here. Today it is among the least churched major cities, with a highly educated, secular professional class and declining Catholic attendance. But its religious infrastructure — historic churches, seminaries (Gordon-Conwell, Boston University School of Theology, Holy Cross), religious hospitals, and universities — reflects a heritage that shaped American Christianity more than any other city. The churches that survive in Boston tend to be theologically serious in ways that reflect the intellectual culture of the city.