St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Morristown, New Jersey)

Last updated

St. Peter's Episcopal Church
St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Morristown, NJ - looking northeast.jpg
St. Peter's Episcopal Church and churchyard
Location121 South Street
Morristown, New Jersey
Built1889–1913
Architect McKim, Mead, and White
Architectural style English gothic
Website Official website
Part of Morristown District (ID73001126)
Designated CPOctober 30, 1973

St. Peter's Episcopal Church is an active and historic Episcopal church in the Diocese of Newark in Morristown, New Jersey. Located on South Street, St. Peter's congregation has roots going back to the 1760s. Officially founded in 1827, with the current building consecrated in 1911, [1] it is notable for its gothic-revival architecture, medieval interior and fine stained glass. St. Peter's congregation has traditionally worshipped in the High Church tradition. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places, listed as a contributing property of the Morristown District, on October 30, 1973. [2]

Contents

History

Interior of St. Peter's from the choir loft. Note the rood screen in front of the chancel. St. Peter's Episcopal Church Interior.jpg
Interior of St. Peter's from the choir loft. Note the rood screen in front of the chancel.

St. Peter's Church was founded on January 1, 1827, as the Episcopal church for the growing community in Morristown. Its first services were held in the home of George Macculloch –a prominent town member and builder of the Morris Canal whose mansion stands near the church. The parent Anglican and Episcopal congregation had existed in the area and called itself St. Peter's since the 1760s, [1] but with the anti-Church of England sentiments during and following the Revolutionary war, St. Peter's, like other Episcopal congregations, did not recover and become mainstream until well into the 1820s. [3]

The side chapel with the Tiffany window of St. Peter, "the rock" of the Church. Altar and stained glass window at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Morristown, New Jersey LCCN2011634843.tif
The side chapel with the Tiffany window of St. Peter, "the rock" of the Church.

In 1840, the Reverend William Staunton introduced the parish to a movement that emphasized the Episcopal Church's catholic origins and apostolic succession as the ties to the Apostolic community and its Eucharistic worship. The current building was designed to include the styles and art of early and medieval Christian liturgy to engage modern worshipers in the Eucharist in this same way.

By 1887, the large congregation, and growing men and boys choirs, justified the erection of the current, massive edifice. The architect of this structure was Charles McKim of the firm McKim, Mead and White that built the old Penn Station, New York, as well as Columbia University, and the Rhode Island State House.

Over 24 years of construction, McKim and the congregation built one of the finest examples of neo-gothic architecture in the United States. [3] [ failed verification ] St. Peter's is modeled on classic English-medieval parish churches. It also incorporates elements from other Christian periods including chancel mosaics, a baptistry, and the Siena-marble altar each in the Byzantine style, and a Spanish-baroque rood screen. The Norman-style bell tower has 119 steps, and a carillon with 49 bells–one of the largest in the country. [4] The entire parish complex is made up of a cemetery, rectory, great hall and parish house, in addition to the Church, and is known to have at least two secret passageways still in use, concealed behind bookcases and in cloisters connecting the various parts of the property. It was consecrated on November 2, 1911, by the Rt. Rev. Edwin S. Lines, Bishop of Newark, after a parish breakfast that hosted over 500 people. [1]

In its affluence, St. Peter's was the parent church to several other Episcopal parishes in the area. These include St. Mark's Basking Ridge, St. John's Dover, and Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, New Jersey —all built in the 1850s while Dr. Rankin was rector of St. Peter's. [1]

Today

St. Peter's continues its choral and sacramental liturgies today with Sunday services at 8:00am and 10:00am, and a Spanish-language mass at 12:00pm, along with Sunday school and children's choir. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Use</span> Roman Rite liturgical use of former Anglicans in the Catholic Church

The Anglican Use, also known as Divine Worship, is a use of the Roman Rite celebrated by the personal ordinariates, originally created for former Anglicans who converted to Catholicism while wishing to maintain "aspects of the Anglican patrimony that are of particular value" and includes former Methodist converts to Catholicism who wish to retain aspects of Anglican and Methodist “heritage, liturgy, and tradition. Its most common occurrence is within parishes of the personal ordinariates which were erected in 2009. Upon the promulgation of Divine Worship: The Missal, and the term "Anglican Use" was replaced by "Divine Worship" in the liturgical books and complementary norms, though "Anglican Use" is still used to describe these liturgies as they existed from the papacy of John Paul II to present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Saints, Margaret Street</span> Church in United Kingdom

All Saints, Margaret Street, is a Grade I listed Anglo-Catholic church in London. The church was designed by the architect William Butterfield and built between 1850 and 1859. It has been hailed as Butterfield's masterpiece and a pioneering building of the High Victorian Gothic style that would characterize British architecture from around 1850 to 1870.

The Pastoral Provision is a set of practices and norms in the Catholic Church in the United States, by which bishops are authorized to provide spiritual care for Catholics converting from the Anglican tradition, by establishing parishes for them and ordaining priests from among them. The provision provides a way for individuals to become priests in territorial dioceses, even after Pope Benedict XVI's Anglicanorum Coetibus proclamation established the Personal Ordinariates, a non-diocesan mechanism for former Anglicans to join the Church.

The Charismatic Episcopal Church (CEC), officially the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (ICCEC), is a Christian denomination established in 1992. The ICCEC is a part of the Convergence Movement. Within North America, most of the Charismatic Episcopal Church's congregations and missions are located within the Northern, Southeastern, Midwest, and Western United States; it also has a presence in Texas, and in Western Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican ministry</span> Leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion

The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. "Ministry" commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptized members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Episcopal Diocese of Newark</span> Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States

The Episcopal Diocese of Newark is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America comprising the northern third of New Jersey in the United States. The Diocese represents the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a province, and presides over Episcopal parishes, missions, outreach ministries and schools in the New Jersey counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Warren, and one church in Union County.

St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 61 Broad Street in the historic heart of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Now part of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey headquartered in Trenton, it was founded in 1706 by missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, London, England. The current building, consecrated in 1860, is in the neo-Gothic style, with a 126-foot Gothic style tower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes</span> Historic church in Washington, D.C., United States

The Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes is an Episcopal church building located at 1215 Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington, D.C., US. The current structure built in 1874 as the Church of the Ascension was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. In the late 1940s, the Church of the Ascension merged with the nearby St. Agnes Episcopal Church and adopted its present name, under which it has continued as an active parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapel of the Cross (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)</span> Historic church in North Carolina, United States

Chapel of the Cross is a parish of the Episcopal Church of the United States in Chapel Hill in the Diocese of North Carolina. It is the spiritual home to more than 1,600 communicants, including numerous students studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Church (Newark)</span> Historic church in New Jersey, United States

Grace Church in Newark (Episcopal) is an active and historic Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Newark. It is located on Newark, New Jersey's Broad Street where it has stood since 1837. Grace is a traditional church that worships in the Catholic tradition. Grace is notable for its architecture, music, and as the birthplace of the tune "America the Beautiful".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. James' Episcopal Church (Manitowoc, Wisconsin)</span>

St. James' Episcopal Church, named for James the Greater, is a historic Episcopal church located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The only Episcopal church in Manitowoc County, St. James' is a "broad church" parish in the Diocese of Fond du Lac. It is the oldest continually operating congregation in Manitowoc County, first meeting in 1841. and organizing in 1848. The current church building, an example of Gothic Revival architecture, was consecrated in 1902. The congregation is active in community service and social justice ministries.

The Church of the Incarnation is a parish of the Diocese of Dallas of the Episcopal Church, located at 3966 McKinney Avenue in Dallas, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Stephen's Episcopal Church (Beverly, New Jersey)</span> Historic church in New Jersey, United States

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, in Beverly, Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, is located on the corner of Warren and Wilmerton streets in Beverly. While the St. Stephen's community worshipped at the site beginning in 1837, the current church building was consecrated in 1855 and the rector presently serving the congregation is Fr. Robert Legnani.

This is a glossary of terms used within the Catholic Church. Some terms used in everyday English have a different meaning in the context of the Catholic faith, including brother, confession, confirmation, exemption, faithful, father, ordinary, religious, sister, venerable, and vow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Cuthbert's Church, Durham</span> Church in Durham, United Kingdom

St Cuthbert's Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Durham, England. It was opened on 31 May 1827 to replace two previous chapels, one run by the secular clergy and the other by the Jesuits. It is also the home of the Durham University Catholic Chaplaincy and Catholic Society. From 2012 to 2016 the parish was entrusted, along with the chaplaincy, to the Dominican Order, and its congregation has since maintained the Dominicans' influence. The church is a protected building, being part of the Elvet Green Conservation Area. It is named for St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, the 7th century bishop, healer and patron of Northern England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christ Church, Newton</span> Historic church in New Jersey, United States

Christ Church, also known as Christ Episcopal Church, is a Christian house of worship located on the corner of Church Street and Main Street in Newton, New Jersey. It is a parish overseen by the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The congregation first met on 28 December 1769 and was granted a charter by New Jersey's last Royal Governor William Franklin on behalf of Britain's King George III. Christ Church is the oldest church in Newton and the third oldest parish in the Diocese of Newark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Englewood, New Jersey)</span> United States historic place

St. Paul's Episcopal Church is located at 113 Engle Street at the corner of Church Street in Englewood, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The congregation was organized in 1865, and their first church was erected in 1866. It is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Episcopal Church (Madison, New Jersey)</span> Historic church in New Jersey, United States

Grace Episcopal Church is an active and historic Episcopal church in Madison, New Jersey, United States. Established in 1854, Grace has the largest membership of any parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, with traditional "high church" Christian worship and a strong choral music program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, Pennsylvania)</span> Church in Pennsylvania, United States

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, is a progressive Episcopal parish church in the liberal Anglo-Catholic tradition. It is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania and is located in the Philadelphia Main Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace and St. Peter's Church</span> Church in Baltimore, United States

Grace & St. Peter's Church is an Anglo-Catholic Episcopal parish in the city of Baltimore, in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. The congregation is the product of the 1912 amalgamation of two earlier parishes, St. Peter's Church and Grace Church. Its building, constructed in Brownstone, is an elaborate example of English Gothic Revival architecture dating from 1852. Today, Grace & St. Peter's is distinguished by its Anglo-Catholic liturgy and professional choir. From 1940 to 2020, it was also home to the Wilkes School at Grace & St. Peter's, an Episcopal day school which closed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 J. Elliot Lindsley and Faith W. Eckler (1952). A History of St. Peter's Church: Morristown New Jersey 1760-2005. Morristown, NJ: The Rector, Wardens and Vestry of St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
  2. ↑ Karschner, Terry (July 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Morristown District". National Park Service. With accompanying 18 photos
  3. 1 2 "Morristown - St Peter's". njchurchscape.com. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  4. ↑ Coughlin, Kevin. "St. Peter's tower, a Morristown landmark, going into the body shop | Morristown Green" . Retrieved April 24, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Home". St. Peter's Church. Retrieved April 24, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.