Modern Church
Merchant's Hope Episcopal Church still has an active congregation and is among the oldest Protestant churches in America. Nearly all of its parishioners can trace their ancestry back to the First Families of Virginia. Merchant's Hope Church is a registered Virginia and National Historic Landmark. One of the church's treasures is the "Great Bible". Rebound and not totally complete, it was printed in London in 1639-40. The "Great Bible" is believed to be the Bible with the longest association with one parish. The silver communion set on display was made in Charleston, South Carolina, and dedicated on the 200th anniversary of the parish in 1857.
Following damage during the American Civil War, recreation of the furnishings was patterned after five extant Tidewater area churches, with expert documentation. The initial restoration of the church was completed in the mid 1970s. The church has also undergone more recent renovations that have included masonry repairs to stabilize the structure, the installation of a modern heating and air conditioning system, a security system, and the removal of a slate roof added during the initial restoration that had caused cracking and significant sagging of the roof trusses that were also repaired.
A modern parish house was constructed in the 1990s.
Read more about this topic: Merchant's Hope
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or church:
“The great British Libraryan immense collection of volumes of all ages and languages, many of which are now forgotten, and most of which are seldom read: one of these sequestered pools of obsolete literature to which modern authors repair, and draw buckets full of classic lore, or pure English, undefiled wherewith to swell their own scanty rills of thought.”
—Washington Irving (17831859)
“The Church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells upturned, what have we to do
But stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards
In an age which advances progressively backwards?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)