St. Philip's Church History
The predecessor of the Episcopal was the church of England. It
was the first Christian body to baptize Blacks in what became the United
States, and did so in the early 1600's. In 1861, less than half of the
Americans of African descent in Virginia were held in slavery. The
first sustained Episcopal Church effort among Blacks was centered on
free persons of color and the indentured servants of Virginia aristocrats
and landowners. St. James' Church, Richmond, was founded in 1835, and in 1861,
a congregation of African Americans was formed as a mission
of St. James, and the first building was erected. This structure was
destroyed under mysterious circumstances in the same year the Civil War
ended. The congregation met in the homes of various Members until
the Church was rebuilt in 1869 with the assistance of the Diocese of
Virginia, St. James' Church, and the Family of J. E. B. Stuart. St.
Philip's became a self-supporting Parish in 1920, and has endeavored
since that time to love and serve the Lord , the community, and the
world, doing so in a manner consistent with the Anglo Catholic practice
of the Church.
The Reverend Canon Dr. Alonzo C. Pruitt is the twenty-first Rector of
St. Philip's, and began his service here in February, 2004. St. Philip's
is the oldest and largest of the seven Black congregations in the Diocese
of Virginia, and is the sixth oldest historically African American congregation
in the Episcopal Church, as well as the first to be founded in the American
South.
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The Diocese of Virginia
The Diocese of Virginia was organized in May, 1785, and was one of the nine dioceses that were represented at the first General Convention of what became the Episcopal Church, in September, 1785. Today, the Diocese is one of the largest in the Episcopal Church, with more than 87,000 baptized Members in some 190 congregations in 38 counties in central and northern Virginia. The Diocese includes the ministries of more than 400 clergy, fifteen per cent of whom are women.