Historical Christ Church

Christ Church, Savannah

Christ Church resides on the northeastern edge of the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, in Savannah, Georgia. It is the "Mother Church of Georgia", founded in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe upon the establishment of the colony. Christ Church is thankful for the past, faithful in the present, and hopeful for the future.

Thankful for The Past

Christ Church has a rich history as Georgia's first and oldest house of worship. John Wesley was its third rector and Christ Church is the only congregation in America where Wesley served as pastor. Under Wesley's tenure, the first Sunday School in America was started and the first hymnal printed in the English language was produced. The fourth rector of Christ Church was George Whitefield, the great Anglican preacher, whose powerful sermons stirred colonists up and down the colonies. Whitefield founded Bethesda Orphanage, the oldest continuously running orphanage in the United States, which exists today as Bethesda Home for Boys. Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of America, was baptized, married and buried from Christ Church, and Girls Scouts from all across the United States and the world come to worship where their founder worshipped.

We are grateful for the rich heritage that is ours at Christ Church, but we are not simply a religious museum for curious tourists. We remain an active and fruitful parish today.

Faithful in The Present

Christ Church is an active parish with an average Sunday attendance between 350-400, across three Sunday services of worship: an early morning Eucharist, a later Eucharist, and a service of Compline every Sunday evening at 9 p.m. Christ Church has an active Sunday School program for children, teens, and adults, based on the classical pattern of education. Outreach to the local community is central to the parish. In the Emmaus House ministry, approximately 30,000 meals a year are provided for those in need, and proceeds from the Annual Tour of Homes (sponsored by the Women of Christ Church) produces tens of thousands of dollars in support of Christian ministries throughout the area and beyond. In addition, the parish sponsors a clothes closet for the poor that runs out of the local Baptist Center. Small groups are also central to the parish's development of community, and several small groups exist for both teens and adults. Christ Church supports five missionaries in the field and has an active short-term missions program to several countries, with emphasis on Belize and Uganda. The parish is known for its music ministry, which includes five different choirs. A number of CD's have been produced by the Music Ministry of Christ Church, with its most recent production being a unique offering of its Advent Service of Lessons and Carols, complete with music, biblical readings, and brief teachings on each lesson as well as a study guide for individual or small group study.

All of this continues to take place in the context of Christ Church being sued by the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, and a small group calling themselves "Christ Church Episcopal". The Vestry and parish leadership continue to see this stressful time as a unique opportunity to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, much like St. Paul bore witness to the resurrection in his appeal to Caesar in the Roman court system. Christ Church has produced a 28-minute DVD entitled "Stand With Us", and hundreds of copies have been distributed throughout the U.S., including our Diocesan Website, with a viewership now estimated in the several thousands.

Christ Church awaits an imminent decision from the Georgia Supreme Court regarding whether the Court will hear the congregation's appeal. Regardless of any court's ruling, Christ Church seeks to remain a defender and proclaimer of the Good News of God in Christ.

Hopeful for The Future

As a member of the Anglican Church in North America and the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, Christ Church envisions an "Anglican Awakening" in North America that holds forth the prospects of a revival not seen since the Protestant Reformation. In response to Archbishop Duncan's goal of establishing a thousand parishes in the next five years, the parish is in the midst of a three-year plan that is seeking to establish three "Anglican Mission Fellowships" in the area of East and Coastal Georgia. The Parish Mission is "Knowing Christ, Growing in Christ, and Going in Christ's Name". In the months and years to come, Christ Church is confident that, by God's grace, we will bear fruit in this mission for His glory.

St. Barnabas Anglican Church

Jacksonville, Florida

     During the summer of 2006, a small group of lay folks began meeting to lay the groundwork for a new Anglican Church in the Arlington area.  After finding space to rent for worship, study and fellowship, on Sunday, September 3, 2006, the first service of St. Barnabas Anglican Church was held at Fort Caroline Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville.  A congregation made up of people who had come from various Episcopal Churches, as well as others who came along to join in the celebration and to offer their support, sang hymns, said prayers, heard the first St. Barnabas sermon, and shared in Holy Eucharist.

     As the Rev. John Eason, the rector who had been called by St. Barnabas, looked out over the congregation that first Sunday morning, he, like many of the others gathered there that morning, was filled with excitement and emotion at what God had done in bringing this community of faith together.  We had a church where we could worship, an organist and pianist (shared with the Presbyterians), a choir, hymnals, prayer books, a group of faithful folks, trusting God to lead us and guide us into becoming a part of what we all trusted was to become a new, orthodox expression of Anglicanism in America.

     Over the next several years, God added new souls to our church's numbers, and we sent our youth minister, Bo Ubbens, off to Trinity School for Ministry. We hosted Kenyan Bishop Joseph Wasonga and his wife on their visit to meet our congregation, for whom he had oversight, and for confirmations, and we then enjoyed an episcopal visit by Bishop Bill Murdoch.

Rev. Eason & Ford

St. Barnabas later celebrated the ordination of the Rev. Bruce Ford, first to the diaconate and then the priesthood, and now the Assistant to the Rector.

     We are a traditional, biblical, Christ-centered Anglican community of faith who see our mission as reaching the lost, responding to the needs of those in our community, and seeing that the message of the Gospel reaches to the ends of the earth.  Our parish has an active Anglican 4^th Day community, a chapter of the Daughters of the Holy Cross, Anglican Church Women, and Children's and Youth ministries.  Wednesdays include Morning Prayer, Bible study, and an evening contemporary service.

     St. Barnabas has enjoyed sharing Church space with Fort Caroline Presbyterian Church, a congregation with whom we have developed a wonderful relationship, and who have been great "landlords."  We have enjoyed joint St. Barnabas/Fort Caroline Presbyterian services on Christmas Eve, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. 

     St. Barnabas purchased a 4.5 acre piece of property on St. John's Bluff Blvd. where our future Church home will be built.   We are excited about what God has in store for us as we continue our journey with Him, with others in the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, and with our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Church in North America.

To learn more about St. Barnabas, visit our website at:

Bishop Keith Ackerman

In the last 15 months since The Daughters of the Holy Cross was instituted God has blessed us with 700 members. Our sisters come from as far away as Washington State, Canada, and Hawaii. He has given the Order a strong shepherd and advisor in Bishop Keith Ackerman. The Council has made two trips to Texas one to get acquainted with Bishop Ackerman and his wife Jo.

The second was to attend a gathering of sisters held at Christ Church Midland, TX, where we listened to presentations from Bishop Ackerman, Jean Williams, (membership coordinator) and myself. The theme for the gathering was Weave us Together Lord ,and he did what we asked of him; we became family as we worshiped, laughed, and sang his praises. God is good!

Daughters have been invited to set up displays at the following synods or meetings: Reformed Episcopal Church, Forward in Faith, The Gulf Atlantic Diocese, and The Diocese of the South Constitutional Convention. We were greatly honored that Bishop Foley Beach requested a Daughter of the Holy Cross place the miter upon his head during his consecration. Kathy Aspden, Daughter at Large Chairperson and a member of the Diocese of the South, had that privilege. The Order is blessed to have support from many in the College of Bishops.

Through the dues paid by the membership, the Order has had the privilege of taking part in the following outreach: House Ministry Project in Bishop Murdoch's Diocese, The American Anglican Council, Hatti Relief Fund, sponsorship of a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) missionary to China. We pay a tithe to The Anglican Church in North America on the dues paid by the membership.

January 19^th, 2011, Jean Williams and I will be going on a mission trip to Central America. We will be leading a retreat for teachers from two Christian Schools in Balize. During our visit we will meet with Bishop Philip Wright to discuss Daughters of the Holy Cross and ask his permission to hand out brochures and talk about the Order at the two Anglican churches we will visit We may also meet with fifth and sixth grade students. Please remember Jean and me in your prayers that God's words will be spoken and heard, and pray that God will prepare the hearts and minds of the Belize teachers as he sends us to them.

The Order's In Christ Alone Fund will be helping with some of the expense of our mission trip. If you wish to assist with our expenses you can send a gift to: The Order of the Daughters of the Holy Cross, PO Box 180268, Tallahassee Fl. 32318, be sure to mark it In Christ Alone Fund.

I also ask you prayers for the Orders Provincial Council who will be meeting next month at Marywood Retreat Center in Jacksonville, Florida to continue discerning what God wants accomplished in the future of his Order. In September 2012 an assembly will be held where one delegate from each chapter will vote on matters of the Order and will elect 6 new council members. A retreat for all that wish to attend will be held in conjunction with this business meeting.

In Christ Alone,

Jacque Crosby

Provincial President

Daughters of the Holy Cross

For more information please go to: