…The church predates America. It predates the separation of church and state, having opened in the official state church, the Church of England. Its vestry was a tax-collecting body of local governance. It was founded in a fearful time of Indian massacres. It weathered the American Revolution, with parishioner Thomas Heyward Jr. signing the Declaration of Independence. It survived the Civil War, though stripped bare during federal occupation. One of its brick walls came tumbling down in the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893. It has coped with the Great Depression, segregation, and even the adoption of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.
Today, the church is in the evangelical wing of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It has some 2,000 members with average attendance the past two Sundays between 800 and 900. The Rev. Jeffrey S. Miller, its 33rd rector, says it is modeled after a much older church — the church of Antioch described in Acts 13:1-4. “Proclaim, equip, pray, send and go,” are its guiding principles.
“We’re not the keepers of a museum,” Miller said. “This is a vibrant, lively congregation.”
Below: Look closely and you may see someone you recognize…
