(RNS) — On Ash Wednesday this year, about a dozen people attended a noon service at Boston’s Old North Church, founded in 1723. Two days later, a handful of worshippers took part in a Shabbat service at Newport, Rhode Island’s Touro Synagogue, dedicated in 1763. Congregations participating in sacred rituals — it is something both houses of worship have been doing longer than the United States has existed.
Such places of worship are rare. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research estimates that of the 370,000 religious congregations in the U.S. today, only about 1% existed at the country’s founding.
When the country declared independence in 1776, there were 3,228 houses of worship across the Colonies. The U.S. was already religiously diverse. Congregationalists led the pack with about 670 congregations, or just over 20% of the total. Presbyterians weren’t far behind (18%), followed by Baptists and Episcopalians (each about 15%), and Quakers at nearly 10%. Methodists had a following at 2%, Catholics were just under 2%, and there were a handful of synagogues and more than a dozen Mennonite congregations, according to sociologists Rodney Stark and Roger Finke.
Most of them dissolved due to internal conflicts, financial strains, aging membership and/or the impact of war. Many of the places that survived, like Old North Church and Touro, did so by continuing to gather, whether in ornate or simple buildings, or when pews were full or had just a few worshippers.
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“I think that’s how faith, church and faith, is perpetuated — it’s not, in a way, by big, splashy events,” said the Rev. Matthew P. Cadwell, vicar of Old North Church. “It’s by people who really want to take the time to reflect on what it means to be human and what it means to be a person of God in a complicated world.”
Below are portraits of four that have endured.
Congregants receive Communion during an Ash Wednesday service on Feb. 18, 2026, at Old North Church in Boston. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)
Old North Church, Boston
Founded: 1723
Affiliation: Episcopal Church
Famous for: Lanterns in steeple mar …