Old West Church

Address: 131 Cambridge St, Boston, MA 02114

Years Active: 1737–Present

Tradition: United Methodist Church

The Old West Church—also home to Boston’s recently closed Metropolitan Community Church—was, and continues to be, the locale for crucial events in Boston’s queer religious history. (See our entry for the MCC Boston here.) Founded in 1737 (originally as “The West Church”), Old West is a United Methodist congregation that emphasizes social justice in its work. It played a role in the American Revolution under its minister Jonathan Mayhew, and the congregation actively opposed slavery, particularly under the leadership of minister Charles Lowell and associate minister Cyrus Bartol. Rev. Dr. Sara Garrard became a pastor in 2014, and her tenure at Old West has underscored LGBTQ+ inclusion, as well as the spearheading of a variety of other social justice initiatives, such as fighting domestic violence, food insecurity, racism, and more. The church eventually ended up being a branch of the Boston Public Library for a stretch of time. Old West later began to host MCC Boston meetings in its space in the 1970s, and even served as an initial gathering-place for the local legal advocacy group GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD). Around the same time, Old West hosted the meetings of B’nai Haskalah, an organization for LGBTQ+ Jews that later disbanded and whose place was soon after taken by Am Tikva. On its website, Old West notes its welcome for LGBTQ+ individuals as well as its status as a reconciling congregation. 

Sources and Further Information:

http://web.archive.org/web/20230226143117/https://www.oldwestchurch.org/history

Relevant Pages:

B’nai Haskalah

MCC Boston