Who We Are at St. John’s - “Worship
Is At the Heart of All We Do”
Our worship style at St. John’s is Eucharist-centered and based
on our Prayer Book, but it has a warm and eclectic tone.
Music at the 10 a.m. service is primarily from the familiar 1982 Hymnal, with enrichment from Lift Every Voice and Sing II, and lovely passages from the Taizé and Iona Community services.
The language of worship is traditional at the Saturday 5 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. services, but is more contemporary, and sometimes experimental, at the 10 a.m. service.
Children are most welcome at our worship services. Sunday school convenes
at
9 a.m., between services. In addition, during the 10 a.m. sermon, we
have a special program for the children in the Great Hall. They return
to their parents in time to share Eucharist.
Our membership includes about 300 households. Included in this number are some who are new to town and some representing families with third and fourth generations of active members!
We love to gather at church for worship, festive social occasions and “work parties” for keeping up the grounds. We also love to go outside the church to help the needy in our community and beyond.
For a list of outreach and community service ministries in which we are active, click here.
Small groups you might like to join to help you grow in faith currently include a Women’s Bible Study, The Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and an “Education for Ministry” class.
Step through the red church doors and look around. You will know this
is a place where history was made.
It all began on April 24, 1759, when members of the Episcopal faith
gathered in the home of Ebenezer Blakeslee to organize the 32nd Episcopal
Church built on this continent. The first church was erected on a parcel
of land where the present rectory now stands. The dedication took place
on St. John’s Day, December 27, 1761, in a church that was elaborately
decorated with evergreens, an unusual custom in those days.
In 1783, Samuel Seabury became the first Episcopal Bishop in the United States. Shortly after returning from his consecration in Scotland, he confirmed several people at St. John’s on October 3, 1786. This is the oldest authenticated date of any confirmation ceremony in North America.
In 1834, the cornerstone was laid for the present church building.
A steeple bell was installed in 1851 and is still rung at every service.
The next century was a period of change for St. John’s. The rectory was built in 1855, and remains much the same as it was then. In 1910, a parish house was erected and later remodeled to accommodate a sacristy, parish office, rector’s office and guild room. The chancel was enlarged to its present size in 1925.
During the 1950s, as membership grew, the Great Hall was added in 1952, and in 1956, the old gallery in the back of the nave was removed. New pews were also installed on a cement floor and, for the first time, a center aisle was provided. In 1966, the Goodyear Building was added to house the church school and nursery.
St. John’s, with its tradition of warm hospitality, continues to be a place of history-in-the-making. In 1956, 23 Hungarian refugees arrived at the parish hall, where each was given shelter and assisted by members of the church to resettle permanently in the United States. In the mid-1980s, St. John’s resettled three Cambodian families and helped them become a part of the community. And, in the spring of 2004, working in conjunction with Interfaith Refugee Ministry, three Liberian women were resettled in New Haven.
As we look back on our years of worship and service, we salute those who formed the strong foundation that allows today’s members to build for a strong future.
St. John’s Episcopal Church does not stand alone in the world. It is in communion with the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and the Right Reverend Andrew Smith, who is our bishop.The Diocese is one of more than 100 dioceses that make up the Episcopal Church in the United States of America , which is, in turn, a province of the Anglican Communion, the world-wide federation of churches that originated as the Church of England. Another great website that will give you lots of information about Anglicanism is anglicansonline.org
If you are not familiar with the Episcopal Church, it is a movement that blends traditions from both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. As in Roman Catholic worship, our worship centers on celebrating the Lord’s Supper (also called Communion or the Mass or the Eucharist). Our clergy include bishops, priests and deacons who have been ordained in a chain of succession going back to the Apostles, Jesus’ followers. As in many Protestant traditions, our clergy are both men and women, and may be married.
This quality of blending traditions that appear to be opposites of one another is characteristic of the Episcopal Church in many ways. By this we mean that there is great variety as you visit from church to church. Often, a great diversity of views and backgrounds is represented within individual churches. We believe this reflects God’s desire to reconcile all people to one another, and to God, through Jesus Christ.