Christ Church Celebrates 125th Anniversary

by Emily McDonald
Three priests and a bishop helped Christ Church South Pittsburg celebrate its 125th anniversary. The service on Nov. 18 was attended by about 150 parishioners, former parishioners and guests.

“It was a perfect afternoon for a celebration,” said Senior Warden Susan Thomas. “The temperature was mild and the air was full of excitement as friends who had not been together in many years shared a beautiful service in observance of the historic events of 1876.”

Christ Church began in 1876 with services conducted by a group of Englishmen in a foundry room. The Rev. H.H. Sneed, rector of St. Paul’s Chattanooga, administered the sacraments to them in December of that year. The group soon became St. Paul’s first mission and later a diocesan mission. A building was erected by 1883 and a parish house in 1890.

The Rev. Hunter Huckabay, rector of St. Paul’s Chattanooga; the Rev. W. Jackson Wilson, a former rector who served during Christ Church’s centennial; the Rev. John H. Bonner III, Christ Church rector, and Bishop Charles vonRosenberg delivered a four-part sermon. Huckabay spoke about St. Paul’s history and the work of Sneed. “Surely one of his most productive actions” was his visit to South Pittsburg in 1876. He noted that for a few months Christ Church was attached to St. Paul’s with Sneed celebrating Holy Eucharist there.

Bonner said early leaders of the church took the Great Commission seriously and “today we are here as benefactors of their faith.” There are many closed churches in the South Pittsburg area, he said, because they want to “maintain” and not “do and be the mission of Jesus Christ. “We gather today to say ‘thank you’ for 125 years but we also gather to recommit ourselves to a vision stated long ago and to be those who will proclaim the good news of God through his son Jesus Christ,” Bonner said. “We are mobilizing today around the directives of our church in its General Convention to double the size of this parish in the next 20 years.”

After Wilson and vonRosenberg spoke, the service continued with remarks by Mrs. Thomas. Bonner then led the congregation in A Commitment to Christian Service. The service concluded with Holy Communion and was followed by a light supper in the parish hall.

Former parishioners from Huntsville, Ala.; Atlanta, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Shelbyville, Chattanooga and as far away as Breckenridge, Col., attended the event.

Since its beginning in 1876, Christ Church has grown from seven to approximately 150 members. Parish records document the names of more than 1,500 people who have been baptized, confirmed, married and buried from the church over the past 125 years. A new history of Christ Church is being prepared and is expected to be completed in the spring. Story boards featuring information to be included in the book are displayed in the parish hall.

Emily McDonald is a correspondent for The East Tennessee Episcopalian. She covers the south east area of the diocese.