Local Puritans Mark 350th

Eighty-four members of the First Church of Cambridge waved through the construction-torn Square yesterday on a mini-pilgrimage celebrating the founding of their congregation 350 years ago.

The participants couldn't return to their church's original meeting house on Mt. Auburn St. which is now occupied by the clothier J. Press.

But the pilgrimage nevertheless visited historic Cambridge sites, beginning at the Charles River which is where famed Puritan minister Thomas Hooker and his company arrived before establishing their meeting house two years later.

Following the trek, the group gathered at, their church, located on 11 Garden St., for an 11 a.m. worship and then a 2 p.m. lecture by George Hunston Williams, Hollis Professor of Divinity. Williams spoke about Hooker, who was succeeded by another famous Puritan leader. Thomas Shepard, in 1636.

Allen Pappe, the current minister of the First Church, said Shepard influenced the founding of Harvard College that year.

"The establishment of Harvard College in Cambridge was largely due to the influence of Thomas Shepard," Pappe explained.

"The College was termed mainly to train ministers for the church."

Happe added that the original function of the church 350 years ago is a place where Puritans could worship freely, is very similar to its function today. "The church emphasizes freedom," he said.