The
first English settlers arrived on St. Simons Island under the
leadership of James Oglethorpe in February 1736. In March, the
Reverend Charles Wesley, MA, who also served as Secretary for
Indian affairs and Chaplain to General James Oglethorpe, entered
his ministry at Frederica. From 1736 until 1766, services were
conducted by John Wesley, George Whitfield and other clergy appointed
by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
The
Wesleys and other ministers were ordained clergymen of the Church
of England, by whom the Episcopal Church in the United States
was nurtured. After the return of the Wesleys to England, the
evangelical revival led to the emergence of the Methodist Church,
in which John Wesley had the principle role. Three of the most
outstanding religious leaders of the 18th Century were associated
with the the establishment of the church on St. Simons Island.
In
1752, the trustees surrendered their Charter to the King and Georgia
became a Royal Colony. In 1758, the Province was divided into
parishes and Frederica and St. Simons were designated St. James
Parish.
Following
the Revolutionary War, the descendents of early settlers petitioned
for a charter and were incorporated by act of the State Legislature
on December 22, 1808 as THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE TOWN OF FREDERICA,
called Christ Church. Land from the town of Frederica was also
GIVEN, GRANTED AND SECURED TO AND FOR THE USE AND BENEFIT OF THE
SAID EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The first church on the present location
was erected in 1820 and the congregation worshipped in it until
the outbreak of the Civil War.
The
Reverend Edmund Matthews, DD who became rector of Christ Church,
Frederica in 1810, was one of three clergymen comprising the Primary
Convention for the organization of the Diocese of Georgia in 1823.
The
Reverend Anson Green Phelps Dodge, Jr. rebuilt Christ Church,
Frederica following its destruction during the Civil War, as a
memorial to his first wife Ellen. The Church was consecrated on
the Feast of the Epiphany, 1886 by the Reverend J.W. Beckwith,
DD Bishop of Georgia. In addition to establishing an endowment
for Christ Church, Frederica, Anson Dodge also built and endowed
the Anson Dodge Home for Boys (closed in 1956) and established
the Georgia Missions Fund for the support of missionaries and
teachers in certain counties of the Diocese.
The
present church building is cruciform in design, with trussed Gothic
roof. Stained glass windows, given as memorials, commemorate the
life of Christ and the early history of the Church on St. Simons
Island. The Font was given to Christ Church, Frederica by the
Sunday School of St. Thomas Church in New Haven, Connecticut in
1884. Part of the Credence Table and an inset in the present altar
are from the altar of the original 1820 church.
In
Christ Church yard are buried former rectors of Christ Church,
the families of the early settlers and of plantation days. Also
buried here is the first Georgia State Historian, Lucian Lamar
Knight. The oldest gravestone discovered in the yard dates from
1803.
Courtesy
of Christ Church, Frederica
