A Gothic Landmark on Hale Street
St. John's Episcopal Church has anchored life in Beverly Farms, a North Shore village within the city of Beverly, since 1902. The Gothic Revival sanctuary, with its celebrated Connick stained-glass windows and an acclaimed music program, is a landmark of the community.
The congregation was established that year as a mission of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Beverly, when the Rev. E. J. V. Huiginn, rector of St. Peter's, traveled by horse and buggy to serve worshipers here. For years he led Sunday afternoon services in the winter and an 11 a.m. service in the summer that swelled with summer colonists from Beverly Farms, Prides Crossing, and Manchester. By 1907 the mission's members were petitioning for independence. After five years of negotiation, the Right Reverend William Lawrence, Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, officially recognized St. John's as a parish in 1912, and it has been supported by generations of Beverly Farms families ever since.
The church building was designed by Henry Vaughan, the English architect whose work on the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. helped lead the Gothic revival in America. Following Vaughan's death in 1917, Ralph Adams Cram served as consulting architect. In 1919, Charles J. Connick was commissioned to design and execute the stained-glass windows, and the signature Connick blues still fill the sanctuary with light.
Sunday Worship
Worship is at the center of life at St. John's. In the fall, spring, and winter two Sunday services are held. At 8:00 a.m. the congregation gathers for a spoken Rite I Holy Communion, a meditative service officiated from the chantry altar. At 10:00 a.m., Rite II Holy Communion is celebrated from the high altar with the full choir; this service is offered both in person and via livestream. In the summer the schedule consolidates to a single 9:00 a.m. Rite II Eucharist.
Children of all ages are always welcome, and the sounds of children in church are considered holy. For parents who prefer it, supervised childcare is offered at the 10:00 service for children six and under. During the program year from September through May or June, Little Church meets on the first and third Sundays during the first half of the 10:00 service, offering elementary-age children an age-appropriate lesson led by experienced volunteers with clergy visits. Children return to the service in time for communion. On the first Sunday of every month, Children's Chapel is held during the sermon and prayers of the people.
Middle and high school youth are encouraged to serve as acolytes, crucifers, and lectors. Confirmation classes are offered periodically, and families gather for events beyond Sunday morning that are announced in the weekly email.
A Weekday Rhythm of Prayer
The worship life of St. John's extends well beyond Sunday morning. On Tuesday evenings at 7:00 p.m., an hour of contemplative Compline is offered in the chapel, an extended time of prayer, silence, and meditation. On Wednesday mornings at 10:00 a.m., the parish gathers in the Meditation Chapel for Lectio Divina, a deep dive into the following Sunday's Gospel reading, followed by Holy Communion using liturgy from around the Anglican Communion. Between Sunday services most weeks include a discussion of a current news story from a biblical perspective, with occasional guest speakers; new learners are welcome without advance preparation.
Music and the Concert Series
Music is central to how the parish worships. The Adult Choir is always welcoming new volunteer singers, supported by professional section leaders and offering an eclectic range of anthems at the 10:00 Eucharist, from Hildegard von Bingen to Morten Lauridsen. Sound files and YouTube videos are distributed for at-home practice, so sight-reading is not required. Rehearsals are held Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m., with a warm-up at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday. Young singers and instrumentalists are invited to join the choir for Christmas Eve and Easter, or to play handbells or another instrument during a Sunday service.
The choir is led by Director of Music and Organist Ryan Patten, a graduate of Capital University and Boston University (M.S.M., Ph.D.) who also serves as Managing Editor of The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, published by MIT Press. The sanctuary organ is a three-manual, 48-stop M.P. Moller and Sons instrument installed in 1964, paired with a Solid State Organ System installed in 2006 that provides MIDI capability and a 64-level combination memory. The music room also houses a two-octave set of Whitechapel English handbells refurbished in 2018, three pianos including an early 20th-century restored Steinway model B in the sanctuary, and a Flemish-style harpsichord on loan.
For forty years the St. John's Concert Series has presented a wide range of musical genres, with admission by donation only. The 40th anniversary season is being mounted in collaboration with The Cambridge Society of Early Music. Past performers have included Michael Barrett and The Boston Cecilia, the Aardvark Jazz Ensemble, Seven Times Salt, Harvard Choral Fellows, La Donna Musicale, and the Gordon College Chamber Musicians. The Artistic Director of the Concert Series is Frances Conover Fitch, a faculty member at Tufts, Brandeis, and New England Conservatory, and former chair of the Early Music Department at the Longy School of Music.
Children, Youth, and Adult Formation
The goal of youth formation at St. John's is to create spaces for children to come closer to God, to feel comfortable, loved, safe, and valued at church, to learn about the roots of the faith, and to prepare for active participation in a community of worship. Little Church and Children's Chapel carry this work for younger children, while middle and high school youth serve the parish through liturgical roles and Confirmation classes. An annual Confirmation Class is offered, typically geared toward eighth graders.
Adult formation at St. John's treats Christian education as the study of Scripture, theology, church history, moral theory and practice, and liturgy, and includes reflection on how Christian identity intersects with literature, music, art, and shared political life. Most weeks between Sunday services include a discussion of a current news story from a biblical perspective, and guest speakers are invited from time to time. New learners are always welcome, and no advanced preparation is needed. Those interested in being baptized, confirmed, or received in the Episcopal Church are invited to be in touch with the clergy.
Outreach on the North Shore
St. John's has long been committed to supporting people on the margins of the local community and beyond. The St. John's Community Shop, located in the basement of the church, sells gently used clothing and household goods every Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., closed Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. All proceeds support outreach to neighbors in need and fund micro-grants to North Shore nonprofits. Volunteers are always welcome to assist in running the shop and sorting donations.
Through the Global Refugee Mission of New England, originally founded in 2015 as the Syrian Refugee Mission of New England, the parish partners with the International Institute of New England to welcome displaced persons arriving in New England. Each fall the parish collects new and like-new winter coats, hats, scarves, gloves, and mittens in all sizes for distribution to refugees and immigrants in the region.
St. John's has served hot meals through Monday Night Supper for more than thirty years, always on the fourth Monday of each month at the First Baptist Church on Cabot Street. Each month the parish also collects specific food items for Beverly Bootstraps, and micro-grants of $250 to $2,500 are awarded annually to North Shore nonprofits serving basic needs of food and shelter. Recent recipients have included Together Gloucester, Pathways for Children, HAWC, Beverly Bootstraps Community Services, the Ipswich Refugee Program, the Open Door/Cape Ann Food Pantry, and others.
Sacred Occasions
Baptism is celebrated in community as part of the Holy Eucharist and is open to babies, children, and adults; preparation includes meetings with the clergy. In the Episcopal tradition, marriage is a sacrament between two people, and meetings with the priest before the ceremony are required; couples are asked to contact the clergy at least six months in advance. Funerals are also held at St. John's for members and non-members alike, and the parish maintains the Saint John's Memorial Garden for the burial of cremains and the inclusion of names on the memorial wall.
Clergy and Staff
The parish is led by the Reverend Kathryn Nesbit Elledge, a Chicago-area native who holds an M.Div. and M.S.W. from the University of Chicago and a Certificate of Advanced Theological Study from Seabury-Western Seminary. She has been a priest for more than thirty years, serving congregations and Episcopal schools in Hawaii, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and for the past ten-plus years in the Diocese of Massachusetts, most recently at Christ Church in Cambridge. She lives in Marblehead with her husband, the Rev. C. Clyde Elledge. Ryan Patten serves as Director of Music and Organist, Frances Conover Fitch as Artistic Director of the Concert Series, Peter Bouras as Property Manager, and Eliza Jane Seastone as Parish Administrator.
The Building and Its Spaces
St. John's is located at 705 Hale Street in Beverly Farms, with ample parking on site. Event facilities and conference space are available for rent, including Celebration Hall, which accommodates up to 250 guests with an adjoining kitchen; Loring Hall, which hosts 30 to 100 with shared kitchen access; a library; smaller conference rooms; and classrooms for both short-term and long-term rentals. All event facilities are Wi-Fi enabled and fully accessible. Office hours run Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The 10:00 Sunday service is livestreamed on YouTube, and giving is available online.