The click of a button was all it took to connect two “Dots” earlier this month.

The trip across the Atlantic, once long and arduous, even deadly, was completed in a moment earlier this month when the mayor and others gathered in Dorchester, England, reached out via the Internet video calling service Skype to say hello to the inhabitants of the former British colony.

On this end, First Parish Church Ministers the Right Rev. Richard Kelloway and the Rev. Lavoie, and Phil Lindsay sat around a laptop at the church and took the call. All unofficial scholars of new Dorchester’s history, the three brought their new friends on the other side up to speed about New Dorchester, and corrected them when they asked about “the mayor” of Dorchester.

The mayor of old Dorchester, Peter Mann, made a cameo on the call, dressed to the nines in a red robe, frilly white collar, white gloves, and a large bejeweled chain laden with gold draped over his chest. If anyone questioned how the mayor would fare on the streets of new Dorchester in that attire, it was not recorded on the video.

First Parish Church was founded by Rev. John White, one of the founders of Dorchester, Massachusetts. However, said Kelloway, “It is an absolute myth that John White ever made it here. It’s very clear that he never got to this side of the Atlantic.”

“Well then this is a bit like spotting Elvis,” replied Julian Fellows, the creator of the popular period drama “Downton Abbey” who moderated the Skype call and a following event in England designed to raise money for the Dorset County Museum to restore White’s home.

The absent White’s role in Dorchester’s founding was nonetheless significant during the 1620s. From his home in Dorset, three hours southwest of London, he organized a congregation to send over to the new world, an unusual move for the times as most congregations formed after the group made landfall, Kelloway said. The expedition was a success. The congregants made landfall in 1630 and the following year they established First Parish Church on Meetinghouse Hill.

Mayor Mann was eager to learn about a major tradition in new Dorchester, the Dorchester Day parade. Phil Lindsay, a member of the Dorchester Historical Society, detailed the parade route and described the tradition as something that “celebrates the current diversity in Dorchester. We’re quite proud of celebrating our diversity here.”

Lindsay also referenced Landing Day in March, the official start to the Dorchester Day festivities when modern-day Dorchester residents dress as Puritans and wash ashore in wooden boats hard by the gas tank in Savin Hill Bay. He noted, though that the town’s founders came ashore in May, and it took about a week to do so.

Mann used the occasion to hail the community for supporting the The Mather School, which sits adjacent to First Parish Church, through its 375th year. “You should be very proud indeed of your first free public school. You were well ahead of us with that.”

This video chat was not the first exchange between the communities since the first settlers set sail from Dorset. In 1930, when new Dorchester was celebrating its 300th year, old Dorchester sent over a silver water jug that is still on display at the church, Lavoie said.

Both sides said they hoped that this exchange will encourage even more connections between the two Dots. “We have a long history of back and forth,” Kelloway told the Reporter after the call. “Four hundred years was a long time ago and the history might not mean as much to people who just moved here.”