Community Methodist Church

Community Methodist Church is a United Methodist congregation in Brighton whose identity is closely tied to housing justice. In 2023 it merged with Union Church, a South End congregation with its own parallel history of housing work, and the combined church describes the merger as God leading the two communities to one another. That shared commitment to housing now shapes how the congregation uses its own property.

The congregation’s housing work goes back decades. In 1969, five Allston-Brighton congregations of different faiths responded to the urban renewal era by building the Charlesview Apartments, a 213-unit complex that housed hundreds of residents for more than 40 years. In 2013, after a land swap with Harvard University and a partnership with The Community Builders, the three remaining congregations helped open the 340-unit Charlesview Residences on the Allston-Brighton line, adding affordable housing and mixed-use space.

What to Know

• Since fall 2023, its former parsonage has operated as the Brighton Methodist House, a housing mission site.
• Brighton Methodist House offers affordable housing to seminary students at the Boston University School of Theology.
• The housing ministry aims to meet both the material and spiritual needs of students training for ministry.