Perched atop the hill where George Washington once commanded Fort Cumberland, Emmanuel Parish of the Episcopal Church sits at 16 Washington Street in Cumberland, Maryland. From this hilltop the parish has followed the seasons of its city since 1749, when Christopher Gist is believed to have led the first Christian worship in this part of the country on Christmas Day. Today the congregation welcomes visitors to its Gothic Revival sanctuary, three Tiffany windows, the tunnels that once sheltered freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad, a pollinator garden that is the largest of its kind in Maryland, and a summer lunch program that feeds thousands of Cumberland children each year.
Worship on the Hill
Emmanuel offers the Episcopal Church's two main Sunday Eucharistic liturgies. At 8:00 AM, Holy Eucharist Rite I is celebrated on the first, third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of the month. At 10:00 AM, Holy Eucharist Rite II is the principal Sunday liturgy on every Sunday of the month; it is livestreamed and recorded on YouTube for those at home or in the hospital, and the priest invites those watching online to pray a prayer of spiritual communion just before Holy Communion.
The 10:00 service carries the parish's full music ministry, with organ and occasionally piano, and a Taize Community Choir on the third Sunday of each month. Children who are attending Sunday School begin in church with their families and head to their classrooms about twenty minutes into the service, returning to the parish hall for refreshments at about 11:15. Coffee hour follows the 10:00 liturgy. Baptisms are typically scheduled at the 10:00 service, with baptisms especially encouraged at the Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday, the Day of Pentecost, All Saints' Sunday, and the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.
The Very Rev. Dr. Scott Rieker serves as Priest Associate. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Martin G. Townsend serves as Bishop in Residence.
From Fort Cumberland to a Gothic Revival Sanctuary
Emmanuel's story runs through three centuries of American history. The hilltop it occupies was, in the 1750s, the largest military installation in North America. In 1754 George Washington came here as a Colonel in the Virginia Militia on orders to push the French from British-claimed territory; his surrender at Fort Necessity led to the French and Indian War. The British Army returned in 1755 to build Fort Cumberland, named for the British Minister of War, a log palisade 400 feet by 120 feet that became the logistical headquarters for General Edward Braddock's army and housed some 5,000 men, women, and children at its height. After Braddock's disastrous expedition, Washington kept the fort garrisoned through the war.
Worship came with the soldiers. A military chaplain, or in his absence the post commander - at times Washington himself - led services for soldiers, their families, and the surrounding settlers. After the army moved on, the settlers continued to gather at the fort. Christmas Day in either 1749 or 1778, the date most often remembered, is said to mark the first Christian worship in this region, led by Christopher Gist, the devout Anglican who ran the Ohio Company trading post on the same hill. The name Emmanuel, meaning "God with us," is believed to come from that first service.
By 1800 only Episcopalians and Presbyterians still worshipped at the dilapidated fort, and the government sold the property to their combined congregation. The Episcopal congregation was formally incorporated as Emmanuel Parish on October 16, 1803. A recession delayed completion of the first church building, which was not finished and consecrated until 1829. By the 1840s Cumberland had become the literal transportation hub of the Northeast - the terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the new Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - and the little church was too small for the growing congregation.
Through its rector David Hillhouse Buel, the parish commissioned John Notman of Philadelphia to design a new church in the Gothic Revival style. The cornerstone was laid on Ascension Day, 1849. The completed church was consecrated on October 16, 1851 - 48 years to the day after the parish's incorporation. The building is shaped as a cross, 121 feet long and 40 feet wide at the nave, with a 100-foot steeple, and is built in the medieval manner of stone and wood alone.
Mother Church of Western Maryland
When Emmanuel was formally recognized as a parish by the Diocese of Maryland in 1803, its parochial bounds included all of what are now Allegany and Garrett counties. From that wide territory Emmanuel planted, supported, and nurtured much of what became the Episcopal Church in western Maryland, the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and south central Pennsylvania. St. Peter's in Lonaconing, St. George's in Mount Savage, St. John's in Frostburg, St. James' in Westernport, and St. Matthew's in Oakland remain active daughter congregations. Emmanuel's mission extended into Washington County as well - St. Thomas' in Hancock and St. Andrew's in Clear Spring were started under its ministry. In what is now West Virginia, sister Emmanuel churches were planted in Keyser and Moorefield.
Within Cumberland, Emmanuel also founded St. Philip's Church for the Black community during the era of segregation. The story begins with the parish's sexton, Samuel Denson, an African American man born enslaved in Mississippi in 1840 who came north after the Civil War and began leading Sunday School for Black members of Emmanuel in 1876. After balconies installed for enslaved worshipers were removed in an 1890 renovation, Denson helped found a new congregation. St. Philip's purchased its own building in 1891, and the first service was held on November 29 of that year. St. Philip's remained a center for Black spiritual and cultural life in the tri-state area for decades before declining membership led the Diocese of Maryland to certify it defunct in 1966. It was eventually merged with the Church of the Holy Cross, an industrial mission Emmanuel had founded in the 1890s for South Cumberland's immigrant population. Holy Cross-St. Philip's closed in 2014.
Tiffany, Notman, and the Art of the Building
Three names stand behind the look Emmanuel presents today. John Notman's 1851 Gothic Revival design gives the parish its exterior shape. Bruce Price, born in Cumberland and baptized at Emmanuel before making his name as the architect of Tuxedo Park, several Fifth Avenue mansions, and the Chateau Frontenac in Montreal, designed the adjoining Parish House in 1901. Emmanuel House, the Victorian mansion purchased in 1960 and restored in 1987, holds the parish offices and education spaces.
The interior of the church is largely the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany. After the deaths of two of Emmanuel's prominent members, Tiffany came to Cumberland in 1905 and over the next eighteen years redesigned the chancel in stages. The Adoration of the Shepherds window above the High Altar, the most prominent in the church, is based on a painting by Adolphe-William Bouguereau. The Carrara marble and Caen stone High Altar and Reredos were carved by Tiffany Studios and dedicated in 1906. The Second Coming of Christ window in the west wall, also from 1906, is rendered in the Art Nouveau style. Rizpah, perhaps the most unusual of the Tiffany windows, was commissioned in memory of a former governor's wife and is rendered in the dark purples and oranges of Art Deco in the south transept. Tiffany also designed the pairs of candelabra and candlesticks at the altar.
Other artists with windows in Emmanuel include Henry Holiday, the English Pre-Raphaelite who made Jesus with Mary of Bethany, and Charles Goodhue of Cambridge, Massachusetts, whose St. Monica and St. Augustine is in the medieval French Gothic style. McGill Mackall made several Emmanuel windows, including the welcoming piece in the Cloister. Late-1960s windows at the rear of the church celebrate Cumberland's industrial history and the surrounding natural world. The oldest piece of stained glass in the church is a painted window from 1883 depicting St. John and St. Paul.
Bicentennial gifts include the Emmanuel Cross, a mosaic tile rendering in the Chancel dedicated on Ascension Day 1999 - the 150th anniversary of the cornerstone - and a long needlepoint project begun in 1999 and dedicated in 2003. Designed by Jeannie Bauer under the overall direction of Nancy Lukoskie, the Chapel kneelers take up the birth and early life of Jesus, while the Baptistery kneelers take up the life of John the Baptist. After three years and more than a million stitches, the work was dedicated on Sunday, October 12, 2003.
The Underground Railroad and Samuel Denson's Legacy
Below the church and under neighboring buildings, tunnels from the fort period run through the hill. Centuries later, those same passages carried escaping enslaved people toward freedom. The story of the Underground Railroad station at Emmanuel has been passed down in African American family and community oral history in Cumberland for generations. Much of the physical evidence remains - earthworks that once connected the tunnels, the basements of the old rectory, and the structure beneath the church itself.
In 2000 Dr. Raymond Dobbard of Howard University brought his book Hidden in Plain View to Cumberland, exploring the use of quilts as coded maps for freedom seekers. One quilt square carried the symbol of the church and the instruction that bells would be rung as a signal - the sexton ringing the church bells was itself part of the operation.
Rose Hill: The Parish Cemetery Down the Hill
About three-quarters of a mile from the church at 535 Fayette Street, Rose Hill Cemetery is the resting place of most of Cumberland's notable historical figures. The land was given to the parish in the 1840s by the family of Captain David Lynn, a Revolutionary War officer who had received it from the federal government. When the old cemetery at Fort Cumberland was being removed to make way for a railway cut, graves including those of Thomas Beall of Samuel, the founder of Cumberland, Colonel Lamar, and Captain Lynn were relocated to Rose Hill. Governor Lloyd Lowndes, the only Cumberland resident ever to serve as Governor of Maryland, is also buried there, as is Samuel Denson.
A small group of volunteers known as "The Rose Hill Stoners" now tend the monuments, having learned cleaning techniques from members of Cumberland's Jewish synagogue. No plots remain available in the cemetery, but columbarium niches are still open both in the Rose Hill Mausoleum and in the Bishop's Garden columbarium on the church campus.
Summer Lunch Box
On most weekday mornings for eight weeks each summer, a small army of volunteers fills brown bags with juice, a sandwich, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, dessert, and snacks, then loads them into waiting cars. Summer Lunch Box was founded at Emmanuel in 2001 by Becky Millar, a career educator who recognized that about half of Cumberland's schoolchildren qualify for free and reduced school meals - and that for many, the end of the school year meant the end of reliable meals. The program has since become its own nonprofit, now supported across the community. Three churches prepare the lunches; six sites distribute them. Last summer, slightly more than 16,000 lunches were packed and delivered.
Volunteers come from every part of the community - retirees who return year after year, professionals who take an extended lunch break to drive a route, and high school students looking for summer service. No government funds are accepted; the program is sustained entirely by private donations and donated time. No proselytizing takes place at the distribution sites.
Stewardship of God's Creation: The Pollinator Garden
What began as a quiet project on the church grounds has become something considerably larger. Emmanuel has converted turf grass on its hilltop into a pollinator habitat featuring more than 33 species of native plants. The garden received Bay-Wise Certification from the University of Maryland Extension and was recognized in 2024 as the largest such effort in Maryland. Bishop Carrie Schofield-Broadbent visited on June 8, 2025 to bless the Pollinator and Children's Garden.
Partners include the Diocese of Maryland, the Maryland Department of Transportation, the Maryland Forest Service, the University of Maryland Extension Service, Allegany High School FFA, Allegany County Public Schools, religious and community organizations across Western Maryland, Frostburg State University, Allegany College of Maryland, Episcopal parishes in Frederick and Calvert counties, and volunteers from across the region.
What the Parish Believes
"It's the Gospel!" reads the parish's statement of life and mission. Emmanuel grounds its worship, fellowship, education, and outreach in the Gospel - the revelation of God's love and care through the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As members of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church in the Anglican tradition, the parish draws its worship practices from the Church of England and the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer. Following the English theologian Richard Hooker, Emmanuel recognizes Sacred Scripture, human reason, and sacred tradition as the interpenetrating foundations of a Christian life. The parish explicitly extends a radical and unconditional welcome to all people, particularly the marginalized, the poor, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and anyone who seeks a deeper relationship with God. The parish has signed the Episcopal Church's Covenant to Care of Creation, and its pollinator garden is one expression of that commitment.
Learning at Emmanuel
Christian education is woven through the parish week. Sunday School runs from September through June for children ages three through elementary, using a standard Episcopal curriculum. Teens and preteens aged twelve to seventeen gather for their own class on the third Sunday of each month for discussion of the Bible and what it means to be a Christian today. The classes are led by Justin Paulman and Lindsay Ryan. A free Summer Enrichment Experience is offered each summer for children going into third through fifth grade.
Adults have several points of entry. The Adult Forum meets twice each month between the 8:00 and 10:00 Sunday services, often starting from the Collect of the Day. Bible Study meets on Thursdays at 10:45 AM in the Upper Parish Hall, focused on a chosen theme. Periodic Inquirers and Episcopal 101 classes are offered for those considering formal membership in the Episcopal Church, and short series on topics like Discernment of Spirits have been offered both in person and by webinar, with recordings available on the parish YouTube channel.
Music at Emmanuel
The Music Director and Choirmaster is Dr. Scott Rieker, who also directs choral activities at Frostburg State University. He is joined by three organists and pianists: Dr. Amy Branam Armiento, a Professor of English at Frostburg State; Peter Czifra, a Hungarian-trained keyboardist now playing regularly at Emmanuel after years of shipboard performance; and David Rankin, most recently Music Director at St. Paul Lutheran in Cumberland. Additional instrumentalists join for Christmas, Easter, and other festive occasions. The organ is a 21-rank instrument, originally built by M. P. Mohler in 1952 and rebuilt in 1984, with ongoing upgrades by the Steiner-Murphy Pipe Organ Co. of Cumberland. A trumpette en chamade was added as part of the parish's 2003 Bicentennial. On the third Sunday of each month the parish's Taize Community Choir leads worship in the meditative chant style of the Taize Community in France, with room for the assembly to hum or chant along.
Hospitality, Heritage Days, and the Old Forte Cafe
The Hospitality Committee tends the rhythms of parish life. Coffee hour after the 10:00 service is a weekly gathering for refreshments and conversation, with seasonal touches throughout the year. A Shrove Tuesday pancake supper opens Lent, and an Easter Breakfast marks the Resurrection. The committee's biggest annual effort is the Old Forte Cafe during Heritage Days, Cumberland's two-day September festival. The cafe serves sandwiches, snacks, and strawberry shortcake - a tradition in a city that remembers the footprint of the original fort under its feet.
Weddings
Emmanuel celebrates the marriages of both members and non-members. The Episcopal Church requires that at least one party be baptized; divorced parties follow a specific process that includes a Declaration of Intention and a request to the Bishop of Maryland for permission to officiate. Three one-hour pre-marital sessions with the priest are the norm. Only an Allegany County marriage license is valid; there is a 48-hour waiting period. The church's three-camera livestream system can be used at an additional fee, but recorded music is not used. Photography during the service is done with discretion, and photographs in the church are permitted only in the thirty minutes following the ceremony. Candlelight weddings, runners, and confetti are not permitted. The parish weddings page lists the full fee schedule for members and non-members, plus the cleaning deposit.
Visiting Emmanuel
The church sits at 16 Washington Street, on the hill overlooking the confluence of Wills Creek and the Potomac. Off-street parking is entered from Washington Street and includes three clearly marked handicap-accessible parking spaces. The walkway to the church and parish hall is wheelchair accessible, and a wheelchair, walkers, and a cane are available in the cloister for those who arrive without one. Ushers are on hand at the 10:00 service to assist.
Docent-led tours of the sanctuary, the Tiffany windows, the tunnels, and the gardens are offered by appointment. Tours run Monday through Wednesday and Friday through Saturday at 10:00, 12:00, 2:00, and 4:00, and on Sundays at 12:00, 2:00, and 4:00 (no tours on Thursdays). Adults are $10; children under 18 are admitted at no charge. Visitors can also follow the parish through its Facebook and Instagram accounts and its YouTube channel, which carries recordings of recent services.
The parish office is in the Victorian Emmanuel House, between the church and the parking lot. Office hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and Tuesday and Thursday from 1:00 to 2:00 PM. The church can be reached at 301-777-3364.