North Parish Celebrates 25 Year Long Ministry

On Saturday June 15th, North Parish Unitarian Universalist congregation located at 190 Academy Road, North Andover will be celebrating a milestone 25 years of service of their minister, the Rev. Lee Bluemel (she/her).

North Parish is a Unitarian Universalist congregation that began in 1645 as a Puritan congregation meeting on unceded land of the Pennacook people. Over the last 379 years, North Parish has had only 17 settled ministers. Rev. Bluemel was installed in 1999 as the first female minister in 354 years and hers is the sixth longest tenure since 1645. She is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Divinity School, and formerly served the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland, MI.

Rev. Lee has seen the congregation through many significant local and world events including 9/11/2001, equal marriage in 2004, the Merrimack Valley gas disaster in 2018, and the recent COVID pandemic. She was deeply involved in a group effort to examine the congregation’s early history with the Pennacook, the 1692 witch trials, the enslavement of African children and adults, and the systemic racism that kept Black parishioners seated separately from white parishioners. This resulted in the booklet Hidden in Plain Sight: the Unexamined History of a New England Town and Parish. Her involvement in the local community includes the Andovers’ and Lawrence Interfaith Clergy groups, serving as a chaplain for the North Andover Fire Department, and inspiring the congregation’s founding of Community InRoads (501C3).

The current Meeting House was built in 1836 when the congregation formally embraced Unitarianism. During Rev. Bluemel’s tenure, the congregation completed two major capital campaigns: a $2.1 million preservation project which also addressed fire suppression, accessibility and restored use of the Paul Revere Bell (2004 – 2008), and a $2.3 million project which added a new wing, an elevator and completed the state’s accessibility mandate (2014). Other efforts have included repair of the organ, a critical stabilization of the North Wall (2013), a window restoration project (2019 & 2024), the creation of a labyrinth and beautiful meditation gardens open to all, and a new outdoor bell for the congregation’s 375th anniversary. In addition to being fully accessible, North Parish is designated a “Green Congregation” and has added solar panels and heat pumps to reduce its carbon footprint. Another preservation and insulation project begins this month.

North Parish has been committed to interfaith and community engagement and welcoming all people. It was designated an LGBTQ+ Welcoming Congregation in 2002. The congregation’s outreach missions are focused on addressing hunger and homelessness, climate justice and racial justice. The Meeting House hosts the Great Pond Sangha (a Buddhist community), Ahavat Olam (a Jewish congregation) during the High Holy Days, and seasonal observances for the pagan community. Its food ministries include the Peoples’ Pantry community food assistance program which serves up to 400 families every other week. North Parish also hosts the McVagly weekly GBLTQ Youth Support Group, Red Cross Blood Drives, Bread and Roses meal preparation, AlAnon weekly support groups, the North Andover Thrift Store (501c3), The Friends of the 1836 Meeting House (501C3), Community InRoads (501c3), weddings and funerals, nonprofit retreats, events, classes and workshops.

For the past 17 years, Rev. Lee has worked in tandem with North Parish’s talented Music Director John Middleton-Cox to support a diverse and excellent music ministry. North Parish is also the home of the monthly Crossroads Concert series and community concerts such as this past year’s Gospel Fest during Black History month. The congregation has an active ministry with children and youth, and will be hosting summer religious education on Sunday mornings as well as a “Science and Peace Week” for children at the end of August.

Rev. Lee attributes the changes and advances of the last quarter century to dedicated and forward-looking church leaders and the congregation as a whole. She encourages and inspires active participation in our community and our wider context, encouraging lives of gratitude, generosity, kindness, service and wonder. As a life-long Unitarian Universalist, a proud mother of two and a resident of North Andover, she is dedicated to ministry and social action in the Merrimack Valley and in a climate changed world.

The 25th Anniversary Celebration will take place in the Cato and Lydia Freeman Hall at North Parish on June 15th from 4 to 6 pm. Well-wishers are welcome.