Second Parish Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Portland, ME, has a unique history with both congregational and presbyterian roots. Second Parish Congregational Church was organized and began services in 1787 and was incorporated by the Massachusetts Legislature on March 17, 1788. Its first pastor was Elijah Kellogg, who began preaching for the new church in 1787 as a young theology student and continued as pastor until 1811, when he left and founded the Chapel Congregational Church. He later served as a missionary to several local American Indian tribes, as well as serving as overseer and trustee of Bowdoin College. Mr. Kellogg was an eloquent preacher and esteemed citizen, recognized as setting out the first shade trees in the streets of Portland and also for having the city’s first church organ installed in their meeting house at the corner of Middle and Deer Streets in 1798.
In 1807 Edward Payson was engaged as a colleague to Mr. Kellogg and served as pastor until his death in 1827. Dr. Payson was a passionate preacher whose sermons were often printed in the local newspaper. Theological lines were sharply drawn at this time with First Parish becoming Unitarian and Second Parish decidedly evangelical. Under Payson’s ministry the church added 559 new members by confession of faith and 157 by letter of transfer, and a Sunday-school was organized in 1827.
Dr. Bennett Tyler, then president of Dartmouth College, was installed as the third pastor of Second Parish in September of 1828, with Dr. Lyman Beecher preaching the sermon. After six years of fruitful ministry, including a remarkable revival in 1831, Dr. Tyler left to become president of East Windsor Theological Seminary and lead the opposition to the “New Divinity” then being taught at Yale.
More than ten other pastors served at Second Parish over the next 90 years, and several daughter churches were begun in the area. The original meeting house built in 1788 was destroyed in the great fire which burned so much of Portland in 1866, and the large granite and brick Payson Memorial building was erected at
the corner of Congress and Pearl Streets. Over the years Second Parish sent out about thirty young men to preach the gospel and at least half a dozen missionaries to foreign lands, including Miss Mary Morrill, whose martyrdom in the Boxer uprising in China is memorialized in a stained glass window still preserved in the present building on Neal Street.
The Presbyterian root began in Portland in 1885, with the organizing of the First Presbyterian Church of Portland, Maine, on May 3. This followed several weeks of Presbyterian services held at the Mechanics Library Hall and a petition to the Presbytery of Boston from a large element of Scottish, Canadian, and American Presbyterians residing in Portland who desired the establishment of a local Presbyterian church. Seven of the charter members, including all three elders elected and ordained that day, were received by letter from Second
Parish. The Rev. John R. Crosser served as stated supply from May 15, 1885, until he was installed as first pastor on November 11, 1886.
After holding services in local halls for several years, the Presbyterians leased the Old Park Street Church at the corner of Park and Pleasant Streets for nine years and then purchased this building in 1898. This building is the second oldest house of worship in Portland, having been built originally by the Methodists in 1828 and currently owned by Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.
In the 1920s both the Second Parish Congregational Church and the Park Street Presbyterian Church were struggling with financial difficulties and reduced congregations and decided to merge, becoming a Presbyterian Church but agreeing to use the Payson Memorial building owned by the Parish. The Presbyterian properties were sold to settle debts of both churches. The last Presbyterian service in the Park Street building was the evening service on Dec. 9, 1923, and the first service in the Second Parish Church after the union was consummated was held on Sunday, Dec. 16, 1923. The Church maintained the Congregational system of the parish as the legal corporation that owned the property. Thus, when in 1936 under the leadership of then-pastor John Skilton, Second Parish left the PCUSA to join what soon became the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination, Second Parish was perhaps the only church which kept its building when the the PCUSA sued to retain ownership of all the properties used by the congregations leaving to become part of the new denomination.
By 1964 the Payson Memorial building required more repair and upkeep than the size of the congregation could support, so the church sold that building and moved to a smaller brick building at 32 Neal Street in the west end of Portland, which building was expanded to include a new auditorium for worship and a good-sized fellowship room below. Currently morning and evening worship services are held here each Lord’s Day, as well as a Sunday School with classes for all ages and an afternoon Nuer Service for the Sudanese members. Because most
current church members live outside Portland, the weekly midweek service was replaced some years ago with area Bible studies.
After Dr. Skilton was called to become a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, succeeding pastors have been Arthur O. Olson, Calvin A. Busch, Herbert V.G. DuMont, Leslie A. Dunn, Stanford M. Sutton, Jr,John R. Hilbelink, and the current pastor Daniel F. Patterson, who was installed in November of 2009. A daughter church, Merrymeeting Bay OPC, was organized in 1999, and a current church plant is under way in Bridgton. Second Parish is a church that takes seriously public worship according to the revealed word of God, is committed to soundness of doctrine as summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, and desires to glorify God with accurate, expositional preaching focusing on Christ and his saving work.
