WHEREAS, First Parish Church was established in 1674, the first colonial religious congregation serving the spiritual needs of the area that over 150 years later would be incorporated as the City of Portland; and

WHEREAS, the current church building known as “the Stone Church” was built in the 1820s and dedicated by Rev. Ichabod Nichols on February 8, 1826 as “a monument to liberality,” with a call for actions that would bring joy and peace to our children's children; and

WHEREAS, the predecessor building “Old Jerusalem” was the site of Maine’s Constitutional Convention in October 1819 that led to the document strongly rooted in political independence, religious freedom and popular control of government; and

WHEREAS, because of its stone construction, the First Parish Meeting House was one of the few buildings that survived Portland’s Great Fire of 1866, though the wooden buildings surrounding the Meeting House were consumed by the fire; and

WHEREAS, First Parish has a long history of activism and support for equal rights throughout Maine and the Nation, including its involvement in the abolitionist movement, its leadership in anti- Ku Klux Klan activity and the Portland Freedom March, and its longstanding efforts to support and welcome the LGBTQ community; and

WHEREAS, First Parish remains active in social justice work in Portland, including support for community food security; outreach and support for individuals who are unhoused, and support for new immigrants to Maine; and

WHEREAS, in 1973, the First Parish Church became one of the first buildings in Portland to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places;

NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Janet T. Mills, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim September 27, 2026 as the

200th Anniversary of the First Parish Church

and I urge all citizens to recognize the great history and contributions of the First Parish congregation. 

In testimony whereof, I have caused 
the Great Seal of the State to be 
hereunto affixed GIVEN under my 
hand at Augusta this tenth day 
of September Two Thousand Twenty-Six