Christ Church stands on Bull Street in Savannah's historic downtown, a few steps from Johnson Square and within sight of the river. Founded in 1733 with the colony itself, it carries the title of the Mother Church of Georgia, a parish that has shaped Anglican worship in the American South for nearly three centuries.
The Mother Church of Georgia, Founded in 1733
Christ Church was established on February 12, 1733, the same day the Colony of Georgia was founded. It is the oldest house of worship in the state and the only organized community of worship in the colony for its first years. Early services were held in English, French, and Italian so that all of the settlers could feel welcome.
Two of the most influential ministers in early American Christianity served here. John Wesley was rector from 1736 to 1737 and during his brief tenure started what is recognized as America's first Sunday School and published one of the first English hymnals used in the colonies. George Whitefield followed, serving until 1740, and in 1740 laid the cornerstone for the Bethesda Orphan House and Academy, the institution that grew into today's Bethesda Academy, the oldest home and school for boys in the United States.
On July 7, 1750, a black woman was baptized at Christ Church in what is believed to be the first baptism of a Black person in Savannah. In 1823, Christ Church was one of the three founding parishes of the Diocese of Georgia, and in 1841 the parish's own rector, Stephen Elliott, was consecrated as the first Bishop of Georgia within its walls. That same year, Elliott divided the parish so that all families living south of Oglethorpe Avenue would form a new congregation known as St. John's.
In 1985, Susan W. Harrison was ordained a deacon at Christ Church by Bishop Harry W. Shipps, becoming the first woman to hold that office in the Diocese of Georgia. In 2012, the Reverend Julia Sierra Wilkinson was ordained to the priesthood at Christ Church by Bishop Scott Anson Benhase, becoming the first woman and the first African-American priest in the history of the parish. On May 30, 2020, the parish hosted the ordination and consecration of the eleventh Bishop of Georgia, the Right Reverend Frank S. Logue, with Bishop Benhase as chief consecrator.
The parish also lived through a difficult public chapter. On September 30, 2007, the rector, vestry, and a portion of the membership voted to disaffiliate from The Episcopal Church and align with the Church of Uganda, refusing to relinquish the church's property. The remaining Episcopalians, under a priest-in-charge, were forced to worship elsewhere while the Diocese of Georgia and The Episcopal Church pursued the property in court. On November 21, 2011, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that all real and personal property of Christ Church is held in trust for the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Georgia, and on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2011, the Episcopalians returned to worship in their own building.
A Building in the Classical Style
The current Christ Church is the third structure to stand on this site. The first was begun with the colony in 1733 and dedicated in 1750; it was destroyed in the great fire of 1796. A second building was begun in 1803 but a hurricane wrecked the unfinished frame in 1804; it was eventually consecrated in 1815 and razed in 1837. The present Neo-Classical church was designed by James Hamilton Cooper and erected in 1838. Its two bell towers are short and not visible from the front of the building so that the exterior reads as a Roman or Greek temple.
The bell hanging in the north tower was cast by Revere and Son of Boston and was hung in 1819; it is still in use. After a fire in 1897, the interior was redesigned so that worshipers could see and hear every part of the liturgy and participate fully. The stained glass Ascension Window is a memorial to Stephen Elliott, the first Bishop of Georgia, and the ceiling moldings are copies of those designed by Christopher Wren for St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The archives of the parish are maintained at the Georgia Historical Society on Whitaker Street.
Parishioners Who Shaped a City and a Nation
Two of Savannah's most famous residents were members of Christ Church. Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912, is memorialized in stained glass and was buried from the church when she died in 1927; in 2012, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Johnny Mercer, the Savannah-born lyricist and four-time Academy Award winner whose songs include "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses," was buried from Christ Church in 1976. The parish hosted the citywide memorial service for the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 and continues to mark his legacy each year.
Francis Bland Tucker served as the thirty-seventh rector from 1945 to 1967 and wrote or contributed to twenty-six hymns in the Episcopal Hymnal. His successor George M. Maxwell served as the thirty-ninth rector from 1973 to 1990. The current rector is the forty-second, the Reverend Dr. Andrew Harmon, who came to Christ Church from St. James Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge. He is joined by the Reverend Samantha K. McKean as Senior Associate Rector, the Reverend Dr. Bertice Berry as Deacon, the Reverend Patti R. Davis as Deacon Associate, the Reverend Richard "Max" Maxwell as Priest Associate, and the Reverend Dr. David C. Seyle as United Methodist Pastor-in-Residence. George H. Fergus, formerly Associate Director of Music and Chorister Program Director at Washington National Cathedral, serves as Director of Music.
Worship at Christ Church
Worship is at the center of parish life. Two Holy Eucharist services are celebrated on Sundays, at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., and a midday Holy Eucharist with Prayers for Healing is offered in the Chapel on Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. Services are livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel for those who cannot attend in person. The parish describes its worship as filled with wonder and joy, rooted in tradition and open to what is new, and frames its life together around the words of Ephesians 5:2: "Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God."
Holy Baptism, the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage, and the Service of Christian Burial are all central to the parish's pastoral life. Baptisms are offered in the context of the Holy Eucharist so that the gathered congregation can welcome the newly baptized and renew their own baptismal vows. Marriages are solemn public covenants celebrated in the presence of God, and at least one party is expected to be a current baptized member of Christ Church or the child or grandchild of one; premarital counseling with a member of the clergy is required. Members are appropriately buried from the church, and clergy are eager to be in touch with families as soon as possible after a loss.
Music at Christ Church
Music is a vital expression of worship at Christ Church. The music program is led by Director of Music George H. Fergus, whose career includes years on the staff of Washington National Cathedral where he maintained an active schedule of rehearsals and services and appeared on the cathedral's online stream for major feasts including Christmas Day, Easter Day, and Independence Day. The parish supports multiple choirs and a Chorister Program that introduces children from kindergarten through twelfth grade to a lifelong love of singing and the church.
Christ Church is home to historic organs, and the parish hosts an active concert series open to the wider Savannah community. Together, the choirs, the organs, and the concerts make music both a centerpiece of Sunday worship and an extension of the parish's hospitality to its downtown neighbors.
Children, Youth, and Adult Formation
Children are welcome in worship at every service. A nursery for children from birth through age four is available during services in the parish house at 18 Abercorn Street; ushers will direct families when they arrive. The nursery staff are long-serving, experienced in childcare, and trained in Safe Church, Safe Communities.
Children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade are invited to process downstairs during the 10:30 a.m. service for Children's Chapel, sometimes called the "little church." There they pray, sing, learn, and create, generally following the same liturgy as the larger congregation and returning to their families in time for the Peace and Communion. Beginning in third grade, young people can serve the parish as acolytes, lectors, leaders of the Prayers of the People, ushers, and hospitality helpers. Confirmation begins in sixth grade with Foundations, a spring introduction to faith and community, and continues with formal classes in seventh grade, a multi-night retreat, and confirmation by the bishop during his annual visitation.
Adults learn together through a Sunday Forum held before worship most Sundays, a discussion group called "In the Spirit" that meets on the first and third Monday of each month at the Pirates' House, and a Book Group that gathers monthly in private homes. The parish frames all of this as Christian formation: not merely intellectual knowledge, but being formed as the body of Christ through praying, singing, receiving the sacraments, learning, sharing, and serving together.
Serving Savannah and Beyond
Christ Church members embrace the call to seek and serve Christ in their neighbors near and far. The parish hosts Emmaus House, an interfaith breakfast ministry founded in 1982 that feeds more than two hundred hungry people each morning, Monday through Friday. Emmaus House operates on the first floor of the parish house at the corner of Abercorn and Bryan Streets, and on the second Sunday of every month Christ Church members are asked to bring breakfast items to an "Ingathering Sunday" collection.
Other outreach efforts include Operation Paperback, which collects and ships roughly eighteen hundred books and hundreds of magazines each year to active and hospitalized military personnel in the United States and overseas; Project Smile, a prevention-oriented dental program for indigent children in Belize begun by Christ Church parishioners in 1992; and Over the Moon, a diaper and period supply bank serving eight counties in coastal Georgia and three in South Carolina. Each year on the third Monday of January the parish joins the Savannah Observance Day Association's march and other activities honoring the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Visiting Christ Church
Christ Church stands at 28 Bull Street, Savannah, Georgia 31401, with the parish house across the street at 18 Abercorn Street. Parking is offered in the church lot just south of the building across Congress Street, with overflow in the Congress Street Garage across Drayton Street, where validation is provided by an usher. On-street parking in downtown Savannah is free on Sundays. Accessible parking is located along St. Julian Street on the north side of the church, the same entrance as the elevator. Regular members wear name tags so that visitors can be greeted by name; anyone may request one through the church office.
Children of all ages are always welcome in worship, and the church's nursery is open for little ones from birth through age four. Following the 10:30 a.m. service, the parish hosts a reception in the church undercroft (entrance on St. Julian Street), where visitors and members can meet one another over refreshments. A weekly newsletter is sent out with the upcoming service bulletin on Thursday afternoons and is open to anyone who wishes to subscribe.