Our Story
On March 24, 1847, 10 people met and decided to build a meetinghouse in their neighborhood in the small village of Waquoit. We were called the Second Congregational Church until 1863 when we changed our name to the Waquoit Congregational Church. It is reported our church helped the community gain focus and become the true village of Waquoit. The church was marked on harbor charts to help sailors find their way, and later, airplanes using Falmouth Airpark as well.
Today our church is a vibrant, diverse, welcoming, and growing faith community. We are committed to sharing God’s love for us through our Sunday worship, our focus on children, our connections with community, and our social and outreach activities.
Waquoit Congregational Church is a member of the United Church of Christ. We are an Opening and Affirming Congregation. We welcome and affirm persons of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions.
Our Staff
The Rev. Nell Fields joined our church as minister in October 2010. Formerly an editor and journalist, Rev. Nell spent the bulk of her career as a publisher for a publicly-traded newspaper company in Los Angeles. She then moved to the technology and financial services sectors where she held executive management positions in each.
Since leading Waquoit, Nell has started a number of new ministries, including Safe Plates, an annual fundraiser for various social justice causes; the Waquoit Farmers Market; a yearly Animal Blessing and Animal Fair for area nonprofit animal groups to raise awareness and donations; Falmouth Builds Together, a community-wide effort to provide the needed resources to help build Habitat for Humanity homes in Falmouth, and the state’s first “Death Café,” a monthly gathering for people to talk about that taboo subject – death. She also developed with Gosnold of Cape Cod, an area addiction treatment organization, a series of workshops for clergy on dealing with addiction.
Importantly, Nell worked with her colleagues at Falmouth Jewish Congregation to revive the town’s No Place for Hate group, a community organization whose purpose is to build bridges, combat bias based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and religion, and to promote respect for all people through advocacy and education. In 2019, Nell co-founded Upper Cape Interfaith Coalition.
Nell served on the board of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, and recently served as moderator of the Barnstable Association.