St. Luke's Church, the "Parish Church of the
Mountains", is a part of a world-wide
family of Churches which trace their roots to the British
Isles. We are a parish
within the
Diocese of the South of the Episcopal Misssionary Church
(EMC).
The Rt. Rev. Dr. William W. Millsaps is Bishop of the South.
Christ Church, Monteagle, Tennessee, serves as the Cathedral for
the diocese.
The EMC, incorporated in 1992, preserves and proclaims the faith of what was
known for many years of the "Protestant Episcopal Church in the United
States". The new structure was an outgrowth of Forward in Faith (formerly
known as the Episcopal Synod of America). The Rt. Rev. A. Donald Davies,
retired Bishop of Fort Worth, served as Presiding Bishop until 1989 when he
was succeeded by Bishop Millsaps, former Chaplain of the University of the
South at Sewanee, Tenn.
The first permanent settlers to the American continent brought
with them the faith
of the Church of England, parent of the American Episcopal
Church.
When the three small ships of men who founded Jamestown,
Virginia, in 1607 touched land after their trip across the
stormy ocean, their first act was to give thanks to Almighty God
for the success of their voyage. They set up a crude cross and
altar and celebrated the Holy Communion at the point of land now
known as Cape Henry and marked by a great cross.
At Jamestown the colonists immediately built a place of worship,
where they "had daily Common Prayer, morning and evening, every
Sunday two sermons, and every three months the Holy Communion."
From this very small beginning the rites and worship of the
Church of England as found in the Prayer Book spread throughout
the colonial states.
After the American Revolution of 1776, the Church of England in
America was completely disestablished and had to set about
re-organizing its life and structure. Since two-thirds of the
men who had signed the Declaration of Independence and most of
those who drew up the federal Constitution were Churchmen, it
was not strange that many of these same persons helped in this
noble task of building into the new American Church their own
ideas about democracy.
The first task was to secure bishops for the new church. The
Rev. Samuel Seabury of Woodbury, Conneticut, was elected in 1783
as the Episcopal Church's first bishop. He was consecrated in
Scotland in 1784, because English law still required him to take
an oath of allegiance to the King, which he could not do. With
the subsequent election and consecration of two more bishops,
the American Episcopate was now firmly established. These three
men made up the necessary number for consecrating additional
bishops on these shores.
On July 28, 1789, the most important General Convention ever
held by the Episcopal Church took place in Philadelphia. A
constitution and a set of canons were adopted, and an American
Book of Common Prayer was authorized. The Church also took its
official name, the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United
States of America, at this convention.
Since that time the Episcopal Church has spread out to all parts
of the country. St. Luke's was founded in 1987 under the
auspices of the Traditional Protestant Episcopal Church
Foundation. The Rev. Victor H. Morgan was appointed to serve as
Vicar. The first service was held June 7, 1987, in the Blue
Ridge City Hall. The congregation continued to meet at this
location until the present church was opened Easter Day, 1995.
St. Luke's Churchyard contains the graves of a number of early
settlers dating from the turn of the century.