Christ Episcopal Church (Winchester, Virginia)
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Christ Church, or Christ Episcopal Church, is an
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
church in
Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
, Frederick County,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. The church was founded in 1738, with its first vestry elected in 1742. It is the seat of Frederick Parish,
Diocese of Virginia The Diocese of Virginia is the largest diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing 38 counties in the northern and central parts of the state of Virginia. The diocese was organized in 1785 and is one of the Episco ...
, which once covered half of the
Shenandoah valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge- ...
and western Virginia, including what became
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
. The current church building, the parish's third, was designed by Robert Mills (who also designed the
Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the ...
and
Monumental Church Monumental Church is a former Episcopal church at 1224 E. Broad Street between N. 12th and College streets in Richmond, Virginia. Designed by architect Robert Mills, it is one of America's earliest and most distinctive Greek Revival churches. I ...
in
Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...
) - it was completed in 1828, and is the oldest church building continuously used for religious purposes in the county. It is a contributing building in the local Historic District which predates the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
, and which has been expanded three times since 1980. The early organizational history of Christ Church differs significantly from that of
the Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine Ecclesiastical provinces and dioces ...
in
Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...
, the nearby and similar gateway parish during colonial era settlement in
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, although the two churches had similar experiences of expansion and during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, and remain prominent both architecturally and socially in their historic towns. Christ Church is now one of five
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
churches in the historic Virginia gateway city. The other churches are: historic St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (founded in 1867, one of the first
AME #REDIRECT AME #REDIRECT AME {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
churches and also a contributing building to the historic district), St. Paul's on the Hill (which began as a mission of this church at the city's outskirts in 1966 and became an independent parish in 1996), St. Michael Anglican Church (founded by a British movement and using the 1928
Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
) and Winchester Anglican Church (founded as a mission of the
Anglican Church in North America The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba ...
circa 2010) .


History


Parish founding

King
Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of ...
made a large land grant to Lord Culpeper in 1664, which was mapped in the next century. By 1690, the
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
had a settlement at the northern end of the
Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge- ...
,
Shawnee Springs The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky an ...
, so a trading post was established. Lord Fairfax succeeded to the land grant in 1710 by marrying Lord Culpeper's daughter, but legal title for the land between the "first heads" of the
Rappahannock Rappahannock may refer to: Education *Rappahannock Academy & Military Institute (1813–1873), a school in Caroline County, Virginia *Rappahannock Community College, a two-year college located in Glenns and Warsaw, Virginia *Rappahannock County ...
and Potomac rivers was unclear. Alexander Hollingsworth, a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
from Maryland, became the first documented settler when he in 1729 built a cabin near the Shawnee village. By the end of the next decade, Lord Fairfax won the legal dispute and allowed construction of the first houses in what became Winchester. By that time emigrant
Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
had set up the first house of worship Hopewell Meeting in what today is Frederick County. Soon so did
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
immigrants from Germany via New York and Pennsylvania led by Jost Hite, as well as Scots-Irish
Presbyterians Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
who in 1736 requested ministers from Donegal presbytery in Pennsylvania to visit them. At the outset, all the Shenandoah Valley was considered part of
Orange County, Virginia Orange County is a county located in the Central Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 36,254. Its county seat is Orange. Orange County includes Montpelier, the estate of James Madison, the ...
and the established parish was St. Mark's. However, no record exists that Anglican clergy visited the valley in that era, nor that that parish vestry handled social service work expected of the established church. In fact, Governor William Gooch, upon receiving a letter from the Presbyterian Synod in Philadelphia about how they worshipped according to the established forms of the
Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
, assured them they would be allowed to worship publicly in their own way in Virginia so long as they followed the terms of the English Toleration Act of 1689 and registered their ministers and places of worship with the local county court.Parish History, pp. 3-4. In 1738, Virginia's General Assembly created two new counties from the western area of Orange County: Frederick County in the northwest and Augusta County in the southwest were named after the Prince and Princess of Wales respectively. In 1744, the local Frederick County justices (the court being organized in late 1743) wrote Governor Gooch, who authorized election of 12 vestryman. The vestry elected as churchwardens James Wood Sr. (who had first come to the area as Lord Fairfax's surveyor) and Thomas Rutherford (who was also the county's first sheriff and lived in what later became
Berkeley, West Virginia Berkeley is an unincorporated community in Berkeley County, West Virginia, United States. The community began as Berkeley Station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line, but its name has since been shortened to Berkeley as it has become more of ...
). Wood set aside some of his land near the Shawnee Spring as a town which would become the county seat, selling 22 lots to individuals and reserving lots for a courthouse, jail, parish church and cemetery. While the trading post had been established nearby at Opequon, also known as Frederick's Town, Wood named the new town Winchester after his native English city. The parish's first wooden church was partly built by the end of the 1740s, amidst controversy concerning use of the funds allocated to build several
chapels of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...
in the still-huge parish. Plus, the first minister, the Rev. John Gordon, realized that his salary was far lower than those of ministers in Virginia counties where tobacco grew (the annual salary was 16,000 pounds of tobacco, but since Frederick and Augusta counties grew little tobacco, legislation allowed payment in cash as a rate of three farthings a pound, or only £74 in 1747). The first chapels were probably McKay's Chapel (near
Front Royal Front Royal is the only incorporated town in Warren County, Virginia, United States. The population was 15,011 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. History The entire Shenandoah Valley including the area to become F ...
in
Warren County Warren County is the name of fourteen counties in the USA. Some are named after General Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War: * Warren County, Georgia * Warren County, Illinois * Warren County ...
), Cunningham Chapel in what later became
Clarke County Clarke County may refer to: ;Places *One of five counties in the United States: **Clarke County, Alabama **Clarke County, Georgia **Clarke County, Iowa **Clarke County, Mississippi **Clarke County, Virginia * Clarke County, New South Wales, in Aust ...
, Morgan's Chapel at Bunker Hill in what later became
Berkeley County, West Virginia Berkeley County is located in the Shenandoah Valley in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Hagerstown- Martinsburg, MD- WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the co ...
, and Mecklenburg Chapel near Shepardstown in what later became
Jefferson County, West Virginia Jefferson County is located in the Shenandoah Valley in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. It is the easternmost county of the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 57,701. Its county seat is Charles Town ...
. In 1752, Virginia's General Assembly dissolved the Frederick Parish vestry for misappropriating £1,570 levied to build the structures, perhaps because vestryman Andrew Campbell had fled to Carolina rather than turn over that year's levy for the building, clergy salary and social service duties. The new 1752 vestry included Lord Fairfax, his nephew Thomas Bryan Martin, Gabriel Jones (the attorney who had prosecuted Campbell) and Captain John Ashby (all of the established church) as well as Quakers James Cromley, Lewis Neill (the sheriff) and Isaac Perkins (all of whom had initiated the complaint against the initial vestry), plus Major John Hite (son of Jost Hite, who may have been still Lutheran), merchant Robert Lemon and Captain John Lindsay (of unknown religious affiliation but also on the County Court). Lord Fairfax in 1753 donated land as a glebe to support the minister, which remained parish property until the legal divisions of 1770. Also in 1753, the House of Burgesses decided that Gordon and his Augusta Parish counterpart, John Jones, should each receive a cash salary of £100. The following year brought hostilities with the Indians and the French. Probably the vestry helped fleeing refugees or made provision for orphans and widows, although those parish records are lost. Records show that Virginia militia colonel
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
arrived and set up camp in September 1755 and that with the assistance of vestryman Charles Smith, he was elected to represent Frederick County in the House of Burgesses in 1758, as well as that three of Gordon's horses were conscripted for the war effort. Gordon probably died in April, 1757, and his place was taken by the Rev. William Meldrum, who had arrived earlier that year and contracted to share ministerial duties with Gordon. By 1760, Meldrum had joined with Jones to petition the Burgesses for their salaries, since King George II repealed the act setting clergy salaries at £100, perhaps not realizing that the default was then only £50 (although in 1767 the legislature fixed clergy salaries at £91). At the war's end, the westernmost section was split off as Hampshire parish (although it had problems organizing as well as attracting clergy), and the Frederick parish vestry allocated funds to repair McKay's Chapel. It also decided to replace the wooden church in Winchester with a stone church and build a poorhouse. Three vestryman and two other partners built the new church as well as a parish poorhouse by 1766. This church was considered the town's finest building until the Evangelical Lutheran congregation built a larger stone church and steeple (completed in 1772). Meldrum gave up his position, presumably at least in part over ongoing salary disputes, but while the vestry searched for a rector, he farmed nearby and was occasionally paid for clerical services, as were lay readers. A parishioner, Benjamin Sebastian, wanted to become ordained and agreed to serve as rector, but a year later accepted a position at St. Stephen's Church far to the east in Northumberland County. The vestry next hired Walter MacGowen, who had tutored George Washington's stepchildren, but after ordination he accepted a position in Maryland. The vestry then hired the Rev. Charles Mynn Thruston, who had served in Col. William Byrd's regiment during the French and Indian War. Thruston was inducted in 1768 and served until the American Revolutionary War, despite complaints since 1770 that he was neglecting his preaching duties. Meanwhile, the vestry built two more chapels of ease, only to have the parish split once again. Virginia's legislature created Norborne Parish to cover the area which much later became
Berkeley County, West Virginia Berkeley County is located in the Shenandoah Valley in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Hagerstown- Martinsburg, MD- WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the co ...
, and Beckford Parish was created to serve Dunmore County (later
Shenandoah County, Virginia Shenandoah County (formerly Dunmore County) is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 44,186. Its county seat is Woodstock. It is part of the Shenandoah Valley region of Virgini ...
) (after this parish had encouraged Rev.
Peter Muhlenberg John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (October 1, 1746October 1, 1807) was an American clergyman, Continental Army soldier during the American Revolutionary War, and political figure in the newly independent United States. A Lutheranism, Lutheran minis ...
to move from Pennsylvania to serve those chapels because of his proficiency in German, which many Valley immigrants spoke).


American Revolutionary War and Alexander Balmain years

The somewhat circuit-riding pastor, Charles Mynn Thruston, resigned in 1777 to join Virginia forces during the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
(as did all other 14 Valley rectors). He returned to farm near Winchester after losing an arm as a result of a battle wound, and continued a political career (which according to new Virginia laws was not permitted for clergymen). He and vestryman James Wood represented Frederick County in Virginia's Revolutionary Convention and the new General Assembly. Religious dissent had grown, as Baptists and Methodists now arrived in the valley to join the Presbyterians, Lutherans and Reformed. After Jefferson's religious freedom bill became law and established Virginia clergy no longer were paid from taxes, the newly elected county Overseers of the Poor took over the old vestry book, and lay readers probably held some services. Meanwhile, another long-term vestryman, the elderly
Lord Fairfax Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron Lord Fairfax of Cameron is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. Despite holding a Scottish peerage, the Lords Fairfax of Cameron are members of an ancient Yorkshire family, of which the Fairfax baron ...
(who had remained, though a Loyalist) died at his Greenway Court home in 1781, and was buried in the chancel of the Winchester church, the service being read by Rev. James Thomsom, rector of Leeds Parish (also within the aristocrat's lands). In 1785, the Rev.
Alexander Balmain Alexander Balmain (1740 – June 10, 1821) was an American Episcopal minister and teacher in Winchester, Virginia. He ministered Christ Episcopal Church, as well as serving as rector of Frederick Parish, for four decades, the longest of any ...
(or Balmaine, 1740-1821), a Scotsman who had studied to become a Presbyterian minister at St. Andrew's before becoming successively tutor to the family of
Richard Henry Lee Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732June 19, 1794) was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia, best known for the June 1776 Lee Resolution, the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from ...
, understudy to Jones and then rector of Augusta Parish and later chaplain to the 13th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army and finally Muhlenberg's First Virginia Brigade, became Frederick Parish's rector. Balmain arrived in Winchester after marrying Lucy Taylor (1757-1841) of
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
. In addition to his meager military pension, he secured subscriptions from parishioners to pay for his services, as well as lived extremely frugally (limiting his wintertime fireplace use and renting out the glebe lands and giving the proceeds to the poor). Balmain attended the organizational convention of the Diocese of Virginia presided over by the Rev.
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
(who later became a bishop) and served Frederick Parish over four decades (the longest of any rector to date) until his much-mourned death in 1821. He mentored several clergy, including parishioner
William Meade William Meade (November 11, 1789March 14, 1862) was an American Episcopal bishop, the third Bishop of Virginia. Early life His father, Colonel Richard Kidder Meade (1746–1805), one of George Washington's aides during the War of Independence, ...
, who decided to become a priest, and then served as rector of Cunningham Chapel Parish for 27 years, as well as later became the third Episcopal Bishop of Virginia. Thus, despite Virginia's disestablishment of the Church of England (reestablished as the Episcopal Church at that postwar convention, but which also soon lost its church lands), Frederick Parish (including parishioners living at the remaining outlying chapels of ease now including Berryville, where several more Balmain subscribers lived) was one of only about a dozen parishes to survive disestablishment relatively intact. One of Balmain's last acts was to help form a missionary society for the Shenandoah Valley in 1820. Balmain also convince his cousin John Bruce to immigrate from Scotland. Vestryman Bruce also established the Winchester Academy and helped bring a railroad to Winchester before his death in 1855. Balmain was also, like his protege Bishop Meade, active in the
American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freebor ...
. Also, McKay's Chapel (where he occasionally held services) had been founded by a Quaker between the Hopewell and Crooked Run meetings, and before the Revolutionary War, the lay reader was John Lloyd, an African American (although the McKays supposedly became Baptist after the Quakers refused to allow their members to own slaves). Balmain's last will and testament gave his wife Lucy the power to emancipate their slaves (whom Meade remembered them treating as their children) in her life or own last will (unlike Dolley Madison, Lucy Balmain did emancipate all her slaves when she died in 1845).


Meade years

After Balmain's death, Meade effectively served as the parish's priest-in-charge until 1845, although he was consecrated as the Rt. Rev. Channing Moore's assistant bishop (and probable successor) in 1829. Meade traveled and evangelized extensively, but continued to live near Cunningham Chapel. He engaged other priests to serve at Winchester, Bunker Hill and the Wickliffe chapel (consecrated 1819 and rebuilt and consecrated in 1846) as his assistants, as well as helped plant many congregations in Virginia, especially near the new railroad stations. In Virginia's diocesan convention of 1827, this parish was formally recognized as Christ Church, rather than as the Winchester Episcopal Church or Frederick Parish (which name stayed with Meade's parish for a while, until Clarke County split from Frederick and the two Berryville churches jointly took that parish name). As 1827 ended, Christ Church's vestry voted to tear down the old building and build a bigger brick and stone building in the Gothic Revival style then fashionable, following the design of noted architect Robert Mills (whose wife Eliza was born outside Winchester and kin to many active parishioners). John Bruce served as construction superintendent. The parish also acquired a new cemetery from the heirs of vestryman James Wood. As his first official act as newly consecrated assistant bishop of Virginia, Meade consecrated the new brick Christ Church on October 30, 1829. In 1830, the diocese held its annual convention in the new church (which proved to set the style for Winchester churches for decades). The parish (and the Episcopal Church's Domestic and Foreign Missionary Board) sent its first overseas missionaries, the Rev. John Jacob Robertson and his wife, to Greece in 1830. They helped set up a school in Athens, and were soon joined by
Mary Briscoe Baldwin Mary Briscoe Baldwin (May 20, 1811June 20, 1877) was a 19th-century American missionary educator to Greece and Joppa. She was the "first unmarried woman sent out by the Foreign Committee of the Protestant Episcopal church's Mission Board". During ...
of Frederick County (but sent by Augusta Parish in Staunton, where she had moved after her parents' deaths). In 1836, Clarke County was formally split from Frederick County, and in 1853 Old Chapel became part of Clarke Parish along with the new Grace Church in Berrywille, but that parish too split 1868, with the churches in Berryville (the county seat) taking the county name and Old Chapel and Christ Church Millwood collectively renamed Cunningham Chapel Parish. Meanwhile, in 1837, Meade consecrated St. Thomas Chapel at
Middletown, Virginia Middletown is a town in Frederick County, Virginia, United States, in the northern Shenandoah Valley. The population was 1,265 at the 2010 census, up from 1,015 at the 2000 census. History Middletown was chartered on May 4, 1796. Some of the f ...
, which Christ Church had planted and which remains today as a historic site as well as active parish. The following year, Winchester was prospering and the Commonwealth's eighth largest town. The parish erected a parsonage, but its rector since 1824, the Rev. Edward Jackson, left for Kentucky in 1842, as did his successor, the Rev. William Yates Rooker in 1847. The parish's next rector (and first Virginia native), the Rev. Cornelius Walker, expanded the congregation as well as added a belltower to the church in 1855–56. However, he too soon left Winchester, to accept a call from Christ Church in Alexandria together with a professorship at his ''alma mater'',
Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, located at 3737 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Virginia is the largest and second oldest accredited Episcopal seminary in the Unit ...
.


American Civil War

During the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, Winchester changed hands dozens of times and was the site of three major battles. Christ Church's new rector, the Rev. William Meredith, quickly enlisted as a private in the 4th Virginia Cavalry, and after a year became the regimental chaplain. Meredith also officiated at the funerals of the first parishioners to die in the war: four soldiers, two of whom died at the
First Battle of Manassas The First Battle of Bull Run (the name used by Union forces), also known as the Battle of First Manassas
(long a major road and by then a railroad ran between the cities). Meredith oversaw the training of John Bell Tilden Reed, whom Meade ordained as a deacon on March 17, 1861, and who took care of the parish's spiritual needs in Meredith's absence, with the help of visiting clergy including the Rev. Henderson Suter of Grace Church in Berryville, the Rev. Thompson B. Maury and several other Confederate chaplains. Deacon J. B. T. Reed, already a mature man and active Mason as well as son of a Methodist minister, was never was ordained a priest, but at the war's end initiated young Union Major
William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
into Winchester's Hiram Lodge of Masons, as well as himself served as a missionary in various nearby churches before his death at age 89 in 1895. The parish's wardens were both Confederate sympathizers and law partners, Philip Williams and David Barton. The former was arrested by the Union army in 1864 and imprisoned in
Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...
. The latter lost three of his six sons who enlisted in the Confederate cause before dying himself in 1863. The Rev. Joseph R. Jones of Cunningham Chapel was also arrested for reading a prayer for Jefferson Davis. The Christ Church building survived the war with relatively little structural damage compared to other Winchester churches, perhaps due to the vestry's accommodations. Nonetheless, parishioners were appalled that the wardens allowed it to be used by Episcopal Union chaplains, and conducted their own services in private homes on Sundays and Wednesdays, or attended Lutheran or Presbyterian services to avoid seeing Union worshipers. Union Generals Philip H. Sheridan and George A. Custer were attended Christmas services at Christ Church in 1864. The building did suffer smashed windows, since it was used as a jail at least once (for captured Confederates, as were the Lutheran and Presbyterian churches), and perhaps as a hospital by both armies. Religious services were relatively rare. By 1864, of 96 communicants, at least 77 were women. Moreover, during the war at least 1400 soldiers who died at hospitals in town were buried in the relatively new Episcopal cemetery at Mt. Hebron (the cemetery itself starting as a Lutheran cemetery though when that church burned down in 1853 four additional denominations including Presbyterians and Episcopalians established adjacent cemeteries there).


Reconstruction through the Progressive Era and World Wars

After the war, the Rev. William Meredith resumed his duties as rector, and worked diligently to repair the parish's finances (drowning in red ink) and those of less fortunate Virginia congregations before his death on November 1, 1875. Although many of the Union dead were moved out of the Episcopal section of the Mt. Hebron cemetery by federal burial teams into the new National Cemetery at Winchester (adjacent to Mt. Hebron) or to their home towns), the Episcopal Church Women helped establish the Stomewall Cemetery section of Mt. Hebron. Meredith also spearheaded building a lecture room for Sunday school classes (finished 1872, and the host of the diocesan council the following year). The parish's women also conducted many fundraising dinners and other drives to balance the parish books, as well as led efforts to establish a Confederate cemetery (the Stonewall Cemetery section at Mt. Hebron). Also another former Confederate chaplain, the Rev. James Avirrett (the son-in-law of vestryman Philip Williams) began a girls' school, Dunbar Seminary, in Winchester, which he ran from 1864 until accepting a transfer to the Diocese of Maryland in 1870. In 1874, Winchester citizens led by vestryman
Frederick W.M. Holliday Frederick William Mackey Holliday (February 22, 1828May 29, 1899) was a member of the Confederate Congress as well as an officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He also became the 38th Governor of Virginia, serv ...
("one-armed hero of the Shenandoah valley" elected Virginia's governor in 1877) established the Episcopal Female Institute (later
Stuart Hall School Stuart Hall School is a Staunton, Virginia, co-educational school for students from Grade 4 to Grade 12, and it offers a boarding program from Grades 8 to 12. Stuart Hall School was established in 1827. The head of the school is Jason Coady. In ...
) in Winchester, with the Rev. James C. Wheat as its principal until 1886. The school expanded under A. Magill Smith from 1895–1902, but closed in 1909, although an Episcopal girls' school of the same name run by
J. E. B. Stuart James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart (February 6, 1833May 12, 1864) was a United States Army officer from Virginia who became a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb,” from the initials of ...
's widow in Staunton continued. Christ Church parish also sent Emily Lily Funsten Ward, daughter of a local lawyer and previously active in the Daughters of the King movement, as a missionary to China in 1894, where she taught until succumbing to a fever in 1897. In 1920, the parish called the Rev. Robert A. Goodwin, a former missionary to China and of a missionary family, as rector, but his term proved short as he returned to China for a year and then like his predecessor of nearly a century earlier, became professor and dean at the Virginia Theological Seminary (although he ultimately retired in Winchester). The Rev. Robert Burwell Nelson, a clergyman's son and from families long resident in Frederick County, served as the congregation's rector for 25 years, 1921–1946, the longest of any rector since Balmain. The parish dedicated a renovated and enlarged sacristy in Parson Nelson's memory.


Architecture

The church consecrated in 1829 was a 1-story brick Gothic Revival building with a gable roof, three bays and carved stone detailing. Before the Civil War, a 3-story (48'), central tower or belfry was added. Christ Church's windows and war damage were repaired after the Civil War. It had its next major renovation in 1882–84, under the Rev. James R. Hubbard. This included re-roofing, as well as installation of stained glass windows. Renovations inside the church were consistent with the
Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...
(against which Virginia's bishops Johns and
Whittle Whittle may refer to: Crafts *Whittling, the carving of wood with a knife People * Whittle (name), a surname, and a list of people with the name Places * Whittle, Kentucky * Whittle, Derbyshire, a hamlet near Glossop, Derbyshire, United Kingdom ...
continued to rail). However, Bishop Whittle was pleased to confirm 41 people on March 24, 1884, and the parish hosted the diocesan convention two months later. A side entrance was added in 1895, in addition to further repairs, and the rectory received a new porch and kitchen. The church was wired for electricity in 1906, and a parish house constructed as a memorial to a parishioner. A 1983 renovation removed a wooden organ and replaced it with a smaller modern instrument, creating a small chapel in that space.Don Massey, ''The Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of Virginia'' (Diocese Church Histories, 1980) pp. 200, 206.


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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winchester, Christ Church Christ Church 19th-century Episcopal church buildings Buildings and structures in Winchester, Virginia 1738 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies