We Learn: Church history

The Parish of the Epiphany began as a small mission church in 1882 Worshipping first in rented space in a commercial building, the congregation erected a modest wooden Queen Anne style edifice the following year on land across from the Town Hall. The mission was formally organized as a self-sustaining parish in 1888, and its first rector called.

Download "An Anthology of Epiphany History, 1888 - 1988" (PDF format)

Introduction
Chapter 1 A Chronology of Events, by Lane McGovern
Chapter 2 According to this Beginning, by Bradford Eddy
Chapter 3 The Parish of the Epiphany, by R. Allen Page
Chapter 4 Excerpts from Epiphany History, by Lane McGovern
Chapter 5 The Ellison Years, by The Reverend John W. Ellison
Chapter 6 Epiphany Women, by Frances Elliott
Chapter 7 The Seventh Rectorate, by The Reverend John J. Bishop

The cornerstone of the present building was laid in the fall of 1904, and services began there the following year. Over the ensuing fifty-five years the building was repeatedly enlarged, until it attained its present size in 1959. Read the clipping from the Winchester Star of October 21, 1904, describing the cornerstone-laying ceremony, including a list of the objects placed in “the box” in the stone and the text of a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary and opening of the new church in 1905, a special service was held in both the old and the new church. Click here to see the service description. Notes on the reverse side give a picture of the life of the Parish at the time and the excitement surrounding the opening of the new building.

A reprint from The Church Militant, the Diocesan publication and forerunner to today’s Episcopal Times, contains an account of the inauguration of the church building and a detailed description of the structure as it was first constructed. A photograph of the interior that is part of the article looks very much as the church building looks today -- including the same pews and light fixtures!

Over the years the congregation grew from “28 communicants; 23 children in the Church School; $500 raised for all purposes” in 1883 through the heydays of the 1950s and early 1960s, when attendance peaked at almost five hundred at a single service and latecomers had to wait for the next service, and then settled to its present Sunday attendance of between two hundred fifty and three hundred about fifteen years ago.

Epiphany’s music program continues a tradition begun almost a hundred years ago, when the (paid) choir of men and boys was larger than the choir at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It became an almost-all-volunteer choir in the early 1930s, and has been entirely staffed by volunteers, under the direction of a professional leader, for the past thirty or more years.

The Sunday Adult Class was instituted in the nineteen-fifties. Touching on every aspect of the faith and living as a follower of Christ, this program quickly became one of Epiphany’s most appreciated offerings.

The parish occasionally experienced times of great turmoil. An overly-ambitious construction project strained finances (and tempers) in the late nineteen-twenties and thirties. An act of protest against the war in Vietnam by a young assistant priest came close to splitting the parish, and the appointment of an assistant priest living in a same-sex relationship in the 1990s occasioned controversy and ultimately, growth.

Many of Epiphany’s rectors have remained in office for long periods, giving the parish a continuity of eadership that complements its mix of parishioners who have grown up at Epiphany and those whose time in the parish has been briefer.

A brief history of the Parish of the Epiphany church building.

1883 First reference to Winchester as having a Mission Church in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

1888 Parish formally organized. The Rev. John W. Suter elected first rector.

1940 Bell tower constructed.

1954 First issue of Three Crowns of the Epiphany, the weekly bulletin, mailed to the homes of parishioners. Publication continues to the present.

1959 Construction began on new parish hall.