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History of St. John's
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The date of the founding of St. John's has generally been thought to be 1794, when John Davies Jr. gave land for a church and burying ground in what was known as Davies Hollow. However, worship according to the rites of the Church of England began forty years earlier, when missionaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts occasionally visited the fifteen families living near the Davies family in what was then known as Judea, part of the town of Litchfield. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, and during the war, these fifteen families were persecuted by local patriots, and services were held in secret without clergy. (After the American Revolution, Judea separated from Litchfield and was renamed Washington -- the first community in the country to be named after General Washington.)
After the Revolution, the founding families of St. John's Church had to rely on itinerant priests who were hired, as finances permitted, to celebrate four or more services a year. From 1754 to 1885, there was no resident priest. At best, the clergy were part-time, principally based in larger neighboring towns. The records suggest that there were perhaps thirty years when no clergy served St. John's Parish. Morning Prayer was read by laymen, and the Psalms were sung by the congregation with occasional musical accompaniment.
Notwithstanding the lack of a fulltime resident priest, the families built their first church in 1794 and named it St. John's. Twenty-one years later, because Washington had grown up around Green Hill where the Congregational Church stood, the parishioners of St. John's moved their little frame church from Davies Hollow to a very small piece of land near which the present church stands. The old Church Cemetery and its monument to John Davies and his family still exists, and in recent years there have been two burials there.
Only in 1885 were St. John's parishioners able to call their first fulltime resident rector, the Rev. Charles Doupe. Two years later, he was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. William Spencer, who remained until 1895. Dr. Spencer was a man of some means and at his own expense rented the house next door to the Church. This house was later purchased by the women of the parish for the Rectory.
St. John's has had a resident rector for the last 122 years. In that time there have been eleven incumbents. The Rev. Theodore Peck served from 1905 to 1920, retiring early because of failing eyesight. He was the prime mover in the building of the new Church, which was designed by Ehrick Rossiter. He convinced hesitant members of the Parish that it was possible to raise the money for a stone church, and then proceeded to do so. Notwithstanding the demands of the First World War, construction began in 1917, and the first service in the new Church was held on Easter Day, 1918.
Rev.Theodore Peck was succeeded by Rev. George I. Browne, who retired after three years owing to ill health. However, during those years, Father Browne oversaw the organization of a vested choir, established the Altar Guild, and welcomed the first woman in the Diocese of Connecticut to the Vestry.
The Rev. James Carney, who arrived in 1923, created a Sunday School of seventy-five students. He was a great favorite in Washington, working closely with Wykeham Rise School and the Gunnery. With his encouragement, the Parish purchased the Children's House from the Gunnery; this cottage is now the Music Director's home. Father Carney began a fund to build a parish house. He made the services more formal and introduced candles and colored vestments and paraments. He was struck by a car and killed as he crossed the road in front of the Church.
The Rev. Carney's successor was the Rev. Floyd Tomkins, who served St. John's during the Great Depression and the Second World War. In 1955, the Parish House was built. Father Tomkins was active in international Christian organizations and attracted many scholars and statesmen to Washington.
The Rev. Otis Charles was called in 1959 and was Rector for ten years. He was greatly interested in the arts and brought religious drama to St. John's with productions of "Murder in the Cathedral," "Noye's Fludde," and others. With his wife Elvira, he began a children's day school in the Undercroft of the Church, and this school became the Washington Montessori School.
In 1970, Haig Nargesian became Rector, serving until 1989. Father Nargesian strengthened ties between St. John's and the Gunnery School. He was granted lifelong dining privileges at the school, and during his tenure many Gunnery students attended services at St. John's. Father Nargesian oversaw St. John's during a difficult time in its history, serving with no staff and with a minimal music program.
The Rev. Robert Ficks came to St. John's in 1989. In his nineteen years as Rector, Father Ficks established a music program with a fulltime Music Director, Mark Scholtz. Mr. Scholtz built up the choir, reinstituted Evensong, and founded the St. John's Chorale and the St. John's Concert Series. Once a strong music program had been established, it became possible to raise money for a new organ, which was designed especially for St. John's and built by the Wicks Organ Company. As the Parish grew, income from the rental of the Children's House was no longer essential, so the cottage was completely renovated and became the home of the Music Director.
Under Father Ficks's leadership, St. John's began a Litchfield Deanery tradition by holding an annual Lessons and Carols service followed by dinner in the Rectory for all the clergy participants. He also brought to the Parish many associate clergy whose distinguished academic and professional careers enriched the intellectual and spiritual life at St. John's. In active partnership with many parishioners, Father Ficks revived the Sunday School, presided over the renovation and enlargement of the Parish House, and established a Parish administrative office with an Administrator and Sexton.
In 2008 the parish called the Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer as the twelfth Rector of St. John's. The Rev. Dr. Balmer's ministry at St. John's began on June 15, 2008 and he was formally installed on October 10 in a service conducted by Bishop Curry.
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