About UUCH: Our Mission

The Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association of North America and is an ethical and liberal religious community dedicated to promoting the ongoing search for truth and to affirming the inherent worth of the individual.

Our Mission is to create a community that supports individual spiritual growth through the search for truth and meaning in our lives. Love is the doctrine of this church. This congregation is our home and our extended family. We celebrate our heritage of reason and faith and the opportunity to pass this on to our children and future generations. We strive to serve as a beacon for all who value diversity, justice and equality as we demonstrate these values in service to society and the workd around us.

Our History

The Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill is a federation between two of Haverhill's historic churches, the First Parish (Unitarian) which was founded in 1645 and the First Universalist Church which was founded in 1825. They officially joined in 1950, 11 years before the founding of the national Unitarian Universalist Association.

Did You Know?

The Haverhill UU Church has been active in peace work for many years.

Around 1950 Emerson Schweuh was recruited by the Board of Trustees to be the minister. He was working in Chicago for the Fellowship of Reconcilliation, a pacifist organization.

Rev. Ted Webb supported Beyond War and the Nuclear Freeze. He and his parishioners provided home hospitality for Peace Pilgrim and her marchers from Portsmouth, NH. where they were protesting the Seabrook Nuclear Plant.

The church had a group called HAPP'N, Haverhill Area People for Peace Now. They also had A.J. Muste as a speaker, who along with Richard Gregg were the only people from the United States to attend the funeral for assasinated Mahatma Gandhi in India.

~Submitted by Virginia Wright, a long time member and active peace advocate.