History
Pigeon Cove Chapel began as a Sunday School ministry to the Pigeon Cove neighborhood in 1857. A chapel building was constructed on donated land in 1868 and the church installed its first pastor in 1873. The congregation was ecumenical in nature for many years, with its affiliation and theology often influenced by the pastor at the time. In 1947, the chapel was rededicated as an evangelical nondenominational church, and since that date it has been a consistent voice of biblical faithfulness on Cape Ann.
For several generations, the Chapel has had a reputation as a congregation with a strong evangelistic impact on Rockport and the neighboring city of Gloucester. But over the years it has faced many challenges commonly found in small New England congregations. These have included occasional crises of leadership or disputes over secondary matters of doctrine, practice, or personality that created divisions within the body. The result has been a repeated cycle of growth and declension that the current members of the congregation desire to permanently interrupt, as we rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit to establish a new foundation of unity in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3).