Just around the corner from the historic Mystic River drawbridge in downtown Mystic, Connecticut, St. Mark's Episcopal Church has stood on Pearl Street for more than 165 years. It is the only active church depicted in the large diorama of 1870s downtown at the Mystic Seaport, a quiet testament to a parish that has outlasted financial troubles, multiple hurricanes, and three returns to mission status to become a thriving congregation that worships in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, partners with a school in Haiti, packs tens of thousands of meals for local food banks, and welcomes a parish dog named Wicket to its Sunday worship.
The Sunday Shape of the Parish
Two Sunday morning liturgies anchor the life of St. Mark's. The 8:00 a.m. service is a quieter, said celebration of Holy Communion that gathers early risers without music. The 10:00 a.m. service is the larger gathering, supported by the choir and organ (with occasional instrumental accompaniment) and livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot attend in person. Both follow the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer and include biblical readings, a sermon, prayers, and the celebration of the Eucharist.
All baptized Christians, whether Episcopalian or not, are welcome to receive Holy Communion. Gluten-free bread is available for those who need it. A helpful pamphlet written by the rector, the Rev. Adam Thomas, called 12 Moments: Reflections for an Instructed Eucharist, walks newcomers through the structure of the service.
Sunday morning is also the rhythm for the church's education and fellowship. From 9:00 to 9:50 a.m., adults gather in the Undercroft below the church for the Forum Hour, a mix of lecture and small-group discussion that covers Bible interpretation, prayer, worship, and living the Christian life outside the walls of the church. The Forum is available both on-site and on Zoom. Children in Pre-K through fifth grade gather at 10:00 a.m. for Godly Play, a Montessori-style program of story, wondering, work, and feast in a specially designed room in the Education Wing. Youth in grades 6 through 9 meet at 9:00 a.m. for weekly classes and volunteer activities.
After the 10:00 a.m. service, the parish spills into the Undercroft for coffee, treats, and fellowship, catered by a different group of members each week. In summer the gathering moves outside for Lemonade on the Lawn.
An Instructed Eucharist
For newcomers who want a gentle introduction to Episcopal worship, the rector's 12 Moments pamphlet turns the unfamiliar shape of the liturgy into twelve teachable beats. Order of service bulletins are available in the church and are linked in the description box of the YouTube livestream so those watching at home can follow along.
The church is wheelchair accessible. The Undercroft, offices, and Education Wing are all on the ground floor, and a lift from the Undercroft to the sanctuary is available for those who cannot climb the stairs.
Thursday Mornings Around the Circle
Long before the pews fill on Sunday, a smaller community gathers on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. About a dozen people come for an informal celebration of Holy Communion. Readings, prayers, and an extemporaneous sermon fill the first half of the service. In the second half the group circles around the altar for the Eucharistic prayer, joins hands for the Lord's Prayer, and then receives communion from one another going around the circle. Breakfast follows in the Undercroft.
After the Thursday service, at 8:15 a.m., a Bible study group meets in the church to work through the entire Bible using the rector's Bible in 10 podcast, ten minutes a day, with discussion and conversation in person.
Worship at StoneRidge
Each Wednesday at 1:30 p.m., Episcopalians at the StoneRidge senior living community at 186 Jerry Browne Road in Mystic come together for a simple service of Holy Communion. The service is open to anyone from StoneRidge or the surrounding community, and St. Mark's clergy and lay visitors supplement this gathering with weekly or monthly prayer services at several other long-term care facilities in the Mystic area.
The Music of the Parish
Music has been at the heart of St. Mark's since 1985, when David Tubbs joined the parish as Director of Music. Tubbs has shepherded choirs and instrumental ensembles through nearly four decades of worship, and his love of music performed from the heart shapes every Sunday.
The St. Mark's choir rehearses twice weekly during the school year and sings anthems each Sunday at the 10:00 a.m. service while also supporting the congregation's hymn-singing and service music. During the summer the choir rehearses only on Sunday mornings, learning the anthem immediately before the service. No prior musical training is required to join, only dedication and a positive attitude. Singers of all ages are welcome.
Beyond the choir, the parish is full of other music makers. Members volunteer as chalice bearers, lectors, acolytes, ushers, altar guild members, livestream technicians, flower guild designers, bread bakers, and counter volunteers who process the week's offerings. Coffee Hour hosts bring in goodies; in summer, Lemonade on the Lawn takes the gathering outside.
Children, Youth, and Wicket
Children and youth are woven into the rhythm of the parish rather than tucked into a separate wing. On Sunday mornings, parents walk their children to the Education Wing, where age-appropriate activities take place during the 10:00 a.m. service. The youngest, ages 0 to 3, are cared for in the nursery from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. Children in Pre-K through grade 5 participate in Godly Play, where a specially trained storyteller leads them in a forty-minute circle of wonder and work. Youth in grades 6 through 9 gather at 9:00 a.m. for weekly classes, friendship-building, and service projects. Children join their parents in the sanctuary at the Peace, partway through the service.
Every few years the parish celebrates Youth Sunday. On one such Sunday, the Godly Play children submitted questions for the rector; twelve in all, ten autobiographical and two theological doozies, that became the seed of a memorable sermon titled How Old is God? (and other questions).
Confirmation is offered for ninth and tenth graders in even-numbered years, using a curriculum written by the rector called God's Story, My Story. Ten sessions move from preconceptions about Jesus to a final session called The Future, in which young people imagine how they will be telling God's story in their lives fifteen years from now.
No account of Sunday morning at St. Mark's would be complete without mentioning Wicket, an Australian labradoodle who comes to church on Sundays and throughout the week. She runs around the pews, naps on Pastor Adam's couch, attends the Adult Forum hoping for scraps from fellowship time, and accompanies pastoral visits to local nursing homes. She is an Australian labradoodle with the softest fur imaginable. Everyone loves Wicket, and Wicket loves everyone.
The Forum, Bible Study, and Episcopal 101
The Forum Hour, held in the Undercroft between Sunday services during the school year, is one of the parish's signature offerings. Topics have ranged from strategies for interpreting the Bible to studies on prayer, worship, and the Christian life outside the church. Guest speakers join the regular mix of lectures and small-group discussion. The Forum is offered simultaneously on-site and on Zoom, opening the conversation to members at home and to friends further afield.
On Thursday mornings, the parish works through the entire Bible using Pastor Adam's Bible in 10 podcast, with daily readings and a weekly group conversation from 8:15 to 9:00 a.m.
For adults seeking confirmation, reception, or simply a richer understanding of the Episcopal tradition, Episcopal 101 is offered. The next class is scheduled for Lent 2027.
From 1859 to the Undercroft: A Pearl Street Parish
In July 1859, John Calvary Middleton, a young candidate for Holy Orders, established a mission at Washington Hall on the Stonington side of the Mystic River. A Sunday school and library were soon established and named St. Mark's. The Sunday school met intermittently during the Civil War, and in October 1864 a permanent mission was established with the Rev. Alonzo Sears as deacon-in-charge. The communicants organized the parish of St. Mark's in February 1865 and purchased part of the present Pearl Street lot later that year. The total cost of the church was almost $9,000, which members paid off in 1873.
In its first hundred years, St. Mark's reverted to mission status three times as it fell into debt to the diocese. Each time, parishioners rose to the challenge, paid the debt, and became a parish again. Many of the personalities guiding St. Mark's in its early decades remain honored names in the broader community, names you can still see adorning street signs in the area.
The population explosion in the New London area before and after World War II, with Electric Boat and Pfizer hiring as fast as they could, transformed the parish. In the early 1950s the church was raised two and a half feet to create the present-day Undercroft space below the church structure. That additional space proved inadequate. In 1962, construction was completed on the education wing that housed the burgeoning Sunday School.
Today St. Mark's is the only active church depicted in the large diorama of 1870s downtown at the Mystic Seaport, a fact the parish quietly takes pride in. Through financial troubles and multiple hurricanes, the witness to the God made known in Jesus Christ has thrived in the little church on the Groton side of the Mystic River.
Clergy, Staff, and the Parish Dog
The Rev. Adam Thomas has served as rector of St. Mark's since February 2014. Before coming to Mystic, he served two parishes in Massachusetts and West Virginia. He has a passion for preaching, writing novels, and playing board games, and he is the author of the Bible in 10 podcast and the Confirmation curriculum God's Story, My Story. He can be reached at rector@stmarksmystic.org.
The Rev. Chuck Sharp was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons on June 15, 2024, at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford, after graduating from Province 1 School for Deacons in September 2023. His home parish is St. James New London, and he has served internships at Grace Hartford and St. Andrew's Madison. He lives in New London with his husband David and can be reached at deacon@stmarksmystic.org.
David Tubbs, the Director of Music, has been with St. Mark's since 1985 and can be reached at music@stmarksmystic.org. Zachary Kohl joined the staff as sexton in the fall of 2025; he is in the ordination process to become a priest in The Episcopal Church and is attending Yale Divinity School and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Caroline Luethy serves as the parish's admin and communications coordinator; she grew up at St. Mark's as part of the Godly Play program and youth groups and is currently working toward a degree in business administration. She also provides nursery care for children three and under during the Adult Forum and 10 a.m. service.
The lay leadership is anchored by Senior Warden Connie Readett, Junior Warden Pat Porter, Vestry Clerk Betsy Beaulieu, and Parish Treasurer Chris Barnes, alongside elected members Deb Adam, Marie Carmenati, Alex Leslie, Carole Erdman, Owen Hughes, Andrea Storer, Bill Merrill, Katy Roberts, Bruce Lowe, Alison Ives, and Mike Sobol. The vestry meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.
Office hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The main office number is (860) 572-9549, and a pastoral emergency line is available at (860) 448-5881.
Pastoral Care, Prayer Shawls, and the Prayer Chain
One of the missions God gives to all people, the parish teaches, is caring for each other. At St. Mark's a dedicated group of parishioners partners with the rector to provide that care to those who are ill, recovering from surgery, restricted from leaving home, or residing in nursing facilities.
Every Sunday right after communion, specially trained lay people come up to the altar, accept a small circular pyx containing the consecrated bread and a copy of the day's sermon, and receive a prayer of blessing and sending from the congregation. Then they lead the procession out of the sanctuary with their precious cargo and bring communion to those unable to attend church, stitching them into the Body of Christ that just received the Body of Christ.
The Prayer Chain lifts up members of St. Mark's and others brought to the parish's attention in daily prayer. To add a name to the chain, write to communications@stmarksmystic.org. The Prayer Shawl Ministry brings together knitters and crocheters who weave shawls given to people who are sick or in grief, a physical reminder that we are wrapped in God's presence at all times.
For those navigating a funeral, the parish calls its service the Liturgy of the Resurrection, reflecting the conviction that every celebration of a departed loved one is an opportunity to proclaim that nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Downloadable planners help families prepare both a personal funeral celebration and the logistics of the day.
Toddler Playgroup and the Wider Community
For more than thirty years the St. Mark's Toddler Playgroup has cared for two-year-olds in the Mystic area. Half of the children in the program come through the Birth to Three system with speech or motor delays, autism spectrum diagnoses, or other special needs; the other half are typically developing peers. By nurturing children with special needs and their peers in the same classroom, both groups benefit from exposure to one another: those with special needs gain confidence from peer models, and the peers learn to include friends with needs and abilities different from their own. The Toddler Playgroup is an independent, non-parochial organization with no faith-based affiliation, but it reflects a mission the parish believes God calls them to support.
The Haiti Partnership
Since 2008, St. Mark's has partnered with St. Luc's School in Mercery, Haiti. More than 300 students from Pre-K through seventh grade call St. Luc's home. The main support from St. Mark's is funding of teachers' salaries and a daily hot lunch program for the students and teachers, a need made especially critical by the ongoing scarcity and high prices of food in Haiti. There is no public school support in Haiti, and most students who attend St. Luc's cannot afford their uniforms and school fees. Many walk long distances to school. The school is open to all faiths.
Over the years, the partnership has funded a school library (2018), a new seventh grade (2019), a well for drinking water (2019), a summer lunch program (2020), the rehabilitation of the school's only latrine and the construction of a second (2020). All building materials are purchased locally in Haiti and Haitian tradesmen provide the labor. Several members of St. Mark's have visited the school on four different occasions to build relationships with the students and teachers and to experience the conditions that exist in Haiti.
Other local partners in the work include Union Baptist Church, St. Andrew Presbyterian, the Mystic Pilgrims, and the Mystic Area Ecumenical Council. The partnership's next hope is to fund an eighth grade at the school.
The Anti-Racism Team
Dismantling racism and working for equal justice for all people is a spiritual discipline at St. Mark's. Started in 2019, the St. Mark's Anti-Racism Team (StART) developed Mystic Conversations on Race, which ran during the 2020-21 school year and continues as a presence in the life of the parish. The team's work follows three paths: meditation, reflection, and action.
The parish grounds this work in the words of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who describes God as loving, liberating, and life-giving, and in the theologian James Cone's definition of a Christian as one striving for liberation.
VITA Tax Clinic, WARM Center Meals, and Feeding Ministries
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program has operated at St. Mark's since 2016. In partnership with TVCCA in New London, a team of parishioners and community members welcomes hundreds of clients each tax season and provides free tax preparation services to people of low and middle incomes, as well as to seniors. Roles include tax preparer, hospitality personnel, and support personnel.
Each month, members of St. Mark's use the church kitchen to cook a hot meal for the guests at the WARM Center in Westerly, Rhode Island. The meal feeds approximately 50 to 60 people. The parish also supports the WARM Center's bag lunch program for children during the summer months when they no longer have access to free school lunches.
The Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center receives ongoing donations of non-perishables, daily living supplies, baby supplies, and pet supplies gathered at the church. Each October, members of St. Mark's partner with the United Way and the Outreach Program to package more than 10,000 meals for rapid distribution to food banks in New London County. The cost is kept down by purchasing the food in bulk and then having volunteers separate the ingredients into bags sized to feed a family.
Weddings at the Little Church on Pearl Street
Mystic is an idyllic spot to get married, and St. Mark's welcomes couples to celebrate the sacrament of Holy Matrimony whether or not they are members of the parish. One member of the couple needs to be a baptized Christian, but neither needs to be an Episcopalian. The parish celebrates the remarriage of divorced persons with the bishop's authorization, and same-sex ceremonies are welcomed.
Pastor Adam schedules three to five pre-marital counseling sessions in the months leading up to a wedding, with the option of Zoom or FaceTime for couples who live far away. The sanctuary comfortably seats 150, with 200 as a maximum. A detailed wedding booklet explains the donation and fee structure and includes the forms needed to reserve a date.
Safe Church and the Baptismal Covenant
Members and leadership of St. Mark's commit through a set of Safe Church values to create a worship, service, and learning community that is a safe haven for all God's people. The values, given names that begin with the letters of the word church, are Sensitivity, Awareness, Fairness, Education, Community, Health, Universality, Respect, Consistent, and Hospitality.
All volunteers who work regularly with children and youth receive Diocesan Safe Church training, and people new to the church wait six months before volunteering with ministries that involve regular contact with children. Two adults are present whenever working with minors. Sexual misconduct, abuse, harassment, and exploitation of any kind are not tolerated.
For those considering baptism at St. Mark's, the parish teaches that the sacrament is a window through which God gives the gift of viewing the true and eternal reality of God's movement in creation. In baptism, ordinary water reveals extraordinary holiness, and the baptized learn that they can do nothing to earn God's love and can only respond to it. The baptismal life, the parish teaches, is a sacramental life in which each baptized person becomes one of those windows into the reality of God's movement in creation.
Giving for Mission
Each fall, St. Mark's runs a pledge drive to financially support God's mission at the church in the coming year. In the most recent completed year, more than 120 individuals and families pledged over $420,000 with an average pledge of more than $3,500. The stewardship team helps create, distribute, and collect materials, and follows up to encourage pledging.
The parish is also in the middle of a capital campaign dating to 2020. Installation of solar panels is complete, with remaining projects focused on refurbishment of the apartment behind the church and HVAC renewal in the church building.
Online giving is available through the parish's giving portal, and donations by mail can be sent to the church office.
Finding St. Mark's
St. Mark's is located at 15 Pearl Street in downtown Mystic, just around the corner from the Mystic River drawbridge. From I-95, take Exit 89 toward the shore and turn left at the traffic light onto Route 1/Main Street to enter downtown Mystic. Turn left onto Pearl Street; if you cross the bridge you have gone too far. The church is just up the street on the left. (A friendly note: mapping programs sometimes place the address in Groton; there are multiple Pearl Streets in the area. Make sure your map is showing the one just to the left of the Mystic River.)
The weekly eTale newsletter arrives on Tuesday afternoons, and the seasonal magazine The Lion's Tale keeps parishioners connected to the wider life of the parish throughout the year. Sermons are posted in text and video at wherethewind.com, and the 10 a.m. Sunday service is livestreamed on YouTube. The parish is active on Facebook and Instagram. Volunteers are always needed for Altar Guild, Ushers, Lectors, Chalice Bearers, Acolytes, Livestream Techs, Flower Guild, Bread Bakers, Lay Eucharistic Visitors, Finance Team, Endowment Committee, Counters, Stewardship, the Building Team, Coffee Hour, VITA Tax Clinic, Haiti Partnership, Nursery Helpers, Godly Play Mentors and Doorpersons, and the Anti-Racism Team.
For more than a century and a half, the witness to the God made known in Jesus Christ has continued in the little church on the Groton side of the Mystic River. That witness continues to this day and will continue tomorrow.