St. Mary's Episcopal Church has gathered on East Main Road in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, since the winter of 1843, when Miss Sarah Gibbs invited a young minister to begin the first Episcopal services in the area. The congregation still worships on the same 88 acres she gave to the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island - a campus that today includes a historic church designed by Richard Upjohn, an active 20-acre cemetery, a 2012 parish house, gardens, walking trails, and a community whose welcome page reads, "A place to Belong. A place to Become." Rooted in worship, growing in well-being, and living in service, St. Mary's is an Episcopal parish known for its open invitation, its long history, and its care for the wider Aquidneck Island community.
Sarah Gibbs's Gift and the Founding of a Parish
In November 1843, Sarah Gibbs of Portsmouth - a devout Episcopalian and member of Portsmouth society - invited the Rev. Hobart Williams to begin the work of establishing an Episcopal church in her community. On December 17, 1843, the third Sunday of Advent, Williams led the first service in what he described as a "mere shed." Gibbs donated 88 acres of land, formerly known as the Potter Farm, to the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island through a deed of trust, directing that the property "furnish sites for a seminary and a church." The earliest grave markers in the surrounding cemetery belong to Mary Lawton Vinson (d. 1797) and her son George (d. 1816), predating the parish itself.
Bishop Henshaw presided at the laying of the cornerstone on September 2, 1847. The church was designed by Richard Upjohn, the English-born architect also responsible for Trinity Church in New York City, Kingscote and the Edward King House in Newport, and many other American churches. On Ascension Day, May 20, 1852, Bishop Henshaw returned to consecrate the completed building. His journal entry for that day reads, "I consecrated St. Mary's Church, Portsmouth, a gift of faith and love from a pious and magnificent churchwoman, Miss S. Gibbs, costing about $11,000."
Upjohn's Church and Five Years of Restoration
The historic St. Mary's Church has been a landmark on East Main Road ever since. Between 2017 and 2022, the parish undertook a major restoration that included gutting the basement, completely restoring the interior, and replacing the slate roof. Through the generosity of parishioners and grantors, St. Mary's completed the $1.5 million project without incurring any debt, and on November 13, 2022 the parish and friends gathered to worship again in the 170-year-old building. In December 2022 the historic church was entered on the Rhode Island Register of Historic Places, and on March 23, 2023 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places - a recognition of its significance in American history and its worthiness of preservation.
St. George's Chapel, named after the Newport parish that joined St. Mary's in 2007 for shared ministry and worship, sits inside the Parish House built in 2012 to replace a 50-year-old structure. The chapel is a multi-windowed room surrounded by the stained glass windows that were in the original St. George's Church, looking out on the St. Mary's campus. Because the historic church alternates with St. George's Chapel for worship through the seasons, the parish notes that worship takes place seasonally in one or the other space.
Two Weekend Services, Ancient Prayers, and a Choir
St. Mary's offers two inclusive worship services each weekend, both including a sermon and Holy Communion. Saturday worship at 5:00 p.m. is simple, quiet, and contemplative, with no music. Sunday worship at 10:00 a.m. includes music and the St. Mary's Choir. Both services feature ancient and contemporary prayers, last about one hour, and welcome everyone, including children.
No one is required to be an Episcopalian - or even a Christian - to attend. There are no membership or entrance fees, no dress code, and receiving communion is optional. Those who do not wish to receive may come forward for a blessing, or simply remain in their seat. Gluten-free wafers are always available, and if walking is difficult, the clergy will bring communion to the pew. All Christians, from toddlers to seniors, are welcome at God's table. The parish provides a printed bulletin that guides worshipers through the order of service, and greeters hand it out at the entrance. Visitors are not asked to stand up, wave a hand, or otherwise identify themselves. The church is equipped with a T-loop system to assist with hearing.
The 10:00 a.m. Sunday service is streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, and recordings remain available any time. The weekly Gospel reading and sermon are also posted as a podcast on Podbean and Apple Podcasts by 6:00 p.m. on Monday.
Children and Families at the Center
Children are part of the life of St. Mary's from the first Sunday they arrive. Families find special parking spaces for parents with young children in both the front and back parking lots, and a Godly Play-inspired Sunday school meets on the 2nd and 4th Sundays in the lower level of the Parish House from 9:50 a.m. until the Peace, when the children join their families for the remainder of the service. The curriculum covers Bible stories, crafts, and activities for children up through fourth grade.
Older children and teens gather through the Journey to Adulthood program, meeting on the 2nd and 4th Friday evenings in the Parish House for a pizza dinner, conversation, and a curriculum designed for 'tweens and teens. Parents are reminded that children do not have to be perfectly quiet to belong in church; their voices and movement are part of the life of the community. St. Mary's encourages families to find a good spot to sit, teach and explain as they worship, take breaks as needed, and relax.
Forming Faith for Every Age
Christian formation at St. Mary's spans a lifetime. Beyond children's and youth programming, adults gather for Bible study on Friday mornings, weekly Christian meditation, and seasonal devotional studies during Advent and Lent. An intergenerational family dinner takes place on the first Wednesday of each month from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. during the school year, including dinner, a short program, and Compline.
A fall Bible study series focuses on the parables of Jesus about the Kingdom of God, based on the book The Scandal of the Kingdom by Dallas Willard. Other adult offerings have included a course on Celtic spirituality. Christian formation is described by the parish as "a process that occurs through worship, study, service, fellowship, and play," meant to nurture spiritual maturity, build a strong and loving community, and equip children and adults to grow in the knowledge and love of God.
Pastoral Care, Hospitality, and the Comfort of Community
St. Mary's well-being ministries reach into the lives of members and neighbors in times of both celebration and difficulty. The Pastoral Care Team connects with shut-ins and housebound parishioners through Lay Eucharistic visitors who bring communion, prepared meals, errand-running, note cards, and rides to appointments. A prayer shawl ministry makes prayer shawls, hats, scarves, mittens, and baby blankets for those in need of warmth both literal and figurative.
Hospitality at St. Mary's takes many shapes. Monthly events include Bites and Beverages after the 5:00 p.m. Saturday service on the first Saturday, the intergenerational family dinner on the first Wednesday during the school year, and Coffee Hour following the 10:00 a.m. service on the third Sunday. The parish is especially known for its collation - a word meaning "to bring together" - served after funerals to remember the deceased, bring closure to family and friends, offer comfort, and create memories that ease grief in the months that follow. Special seasonal gatherings include a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper, a celebration following the Great Vigil of Easter, and a Pentecost picnic.
Service Beyond the Churchyard
The parish extends its care well beyond its own campus. St. Mary's contributes time, talent, and treasure to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, supporting a food pantry, an annual Santa's Workshop, and a Rinse and Renew program. The Community Outreach Team selects an annual focus - past themes have included immigration, housing insecurity, caring for the environment, and food insecurity - and partners with agencies such as Habitat for Humanity, Crossroads Rhode Island, the MLK Community Center, Conexion Latina, and the Aquidneck Land Trust.
For more than fifty years, the people of St. Mary's have also cooked and served a complete dinner at the local Soup Kitchen on the second Thursday of every month, preparing and serving the meal at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Newport. St. Mary's Community Garden, on parish property, has donated thousands of pounds of fresh organic produce to area food banks since 2011, including the MLK Community Center, Lucy's Hearth, and the Salvation Army. Cutting flowers grown in the garden are also used by the Pastoral Care Commission and shared with the community. Garden plots are open to community members free of charge on a seasonal basis, with the invitation to donate excess produce to local food pantries.
Baptisms, Confirmations, Weddings, and Funerals
At St. Mary's, the sacramental journey marks the rhythms of a parish family's life. Holy Baptism is administered to individuals of any age, from infancy to adulthood, who have not been previously baptized in another Christian denomination; baptisms from other traditions are recognized. Confirmation allows those baptized as infants, children, or adults to make a public confession and commitment to the Christian faith in the presence of a bishop, and is held once a year, often combined with other nearby parishes.
Christian marriage is described as a solemn and public covenant made in the presence of God. To be married at St. Mary's, at least one of the two people - or their parents or family - is expected to be a registered member in good standing with a financial pledge of record. The clergy may, on occasion, agree to officiate at the marriage of a non-member couple who has begun to worship regularly and intends to make St. Mary's their church home; requests from non-Episcopalians to "use" or "rent the church" cannot be honored. Funerals are arranged through the rector, who works with families to craft a service that honors the life of the person they have loved and lost.
Clergy, Staff, and Music Leadership
The Rev. Jennifer Pedrick has served as rector of St. Mary's since April 2014. A lifelong Episcopalian, she was educated at Sweet Briar College and Harvard Divinity School before her ordination to the priesthood in 1999, following an early career as a teacher. She is training as a spiritual director at the Haden Institute and is a mentor for the Trinity Leadership Fellows Program at Trinity Wall Street. Her weekly announcement to worshipers - "you matter here" - has become a hallmark of her welcome.
The Rev. Dr. John Gregory Prior, the associate rector, has been an Episcopal priest for more than forty years. A Providence native, he graduated from Providence College and did graduate work at the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa before entering the ministry following a fifteen-year career in journalism and public relations. He studied for ministry at the University of the South, Sewanee, where he earned his Doctor of Ministry degree concentrating on Celtic Spirituality, and previously served churches in the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and several Rhode Island parishes.
Michael DiMucci serves as pastoral musician, with degrees from Roger Williams University and the Rhode Island School of Design. His musical background spans Broadway and musical theater, opera, classical music, jazz, the American songbook, hymns, gospel, and religious works, and he has performed with the Boheme Opera in Trenton, NJ, the University of Rhode Island's Opera Workshop, and many other venues throughout New England. With his wife Jenny, he co-owns One Studio SMOOCH, an art, music/theater, and beauty studio where he teaches piano, voice, and art lessons.
Eighty Acres of Gardens, Trails, and Resting Places
St. Mary's is fortunate to own more than 80 acres of land. On some of it, buildings have risen; much of the rest remains farmland and woodland, with the Aquidneck Land Trust holding the development rights to keep it as open space. The grounds include a community garden, a labyrinth, a Worship Shed used for outdoor services, and a remarkable 20-acre churchyard that surrounds the historic building. The cemetery is laid out in a roughly symmetrical plan bordered by hand-crafted stone walls, with graves marked by modest stone plaques and exquisitely carved headstones. Its landscape functions as an arboretum of specimen trees - beech, maple, oak, chestnut, linden, umbrella pine, Kentucky coffee, dogwood, and various evergreens and flowering shrubs - and has been home to deer, wild turkeys, and many varieties of birds.
Sarah Gibbs herself is buried in the churchyard on the east side of the church she helped build. Notable burials include Admiral Stephen Bleecker Luce (1827-1917), the first President of the Naval War College; McCarty Little (1845-1915), founder of the Naval War College war gaming exercises; and Mabel Norman Cerio (1876-1949), founder of the Norman Bird Sanctuary. The churchyard remains active, with over 2,000 burials and gravesites still available for purchase by appointment through the Pastoral Associate for Administration.
Getting to St. Mary's
St. Mary's is located at 324 E. Main Rd., Portsmouth, RI 02871, with parking available on the main driveway and on the south and west sides of Gibbs House. Designated handicap parking and parking for families with small children are available in both lots. The main entrance, where a greeter will welcome visitors, is on the top floor of the Parish House; visitors may also enter from the lower level by following the patio walk on the left side of the building and taking stairs or the elevator up to the top floor. Office hours are Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and the parish can be reached at 401-846-9700. Online giving is available for one-time and recurring gifts, and visitors are warmly invited to worship, walk the grounds, attend a community meal, or simply sit in the churchyard to take in the place Sarah Gibbs set aside nearly two centuries ago.