Sunday visit to St Peter's Parish

As we continue our visits to places around where I grew up (since we had been unable to do so while we were in Virginia in 2020 due to shutdowns), we went to services on Sunday at St Peter's Parish Church. I did not attend this church regularly as I was growing up, though I went on several occasions with my Aunt Libby for Christmas Eve Midnight Mass services.

Entry to the church yard

Entry sign

A view of the church through the trees

Another view

Walking up to the front

Front of bulletin with order of service for the day

Information from the back of the bulletin with information about "The First Church of the First First Lady":

Entering the church - you may think that is an "interesting" carpet on the aisle, but it is a brick floor. I am in the picture on the left going into a pew - they are like stall -- in doing research, I have found that they are called "slip pews".

If you're interested in looking at the interior of another Episcopal church from the same era, I found this video of Bruton Parish church in Williamsburg to be interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mEkGhA6koQ  In the video, you will see that Bruton Parish has similar pews that are enclosed by half-walls, but they are called "box pews" -- I think the difference is that slip pews have only one row/pew in them, and box pews would have multiple pews/seating areas in them.

Box pews on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_pew

The main thing I remember about the closed pews from when I was a child is that they stayed nice and toasty warm until the door was opened for those in the pew to go for communion -- then all the cold air from the brick aisle poured into our nice warm space! Remember that this was midnight mass in December -- it was chilly! Since I didn't go for communion, I just wrapped my coat around until the folks who went for communion got back and the door was closed again so it could start warming up.

Carl noted that the backs of the pews were perpendicular, so there was no chance of napping during the service, or, if he did, that he'd crack his head on the front part of the box, and risk waking any other folks at the same time!

The multi-colored fall leaves outside the old wavy glass in the front window made a beautiful array of color! (I don't think the glass in the window is actually old, only made to look old.)

Looking toward the south side windows

The north side wall next to our pew

After the service, we walked around the church to get some additional pictures:

The three-level pulpit from which were delivered the readings (on the lowest level, by a lay reader) and the gospel and the sermon (on the top level, by the priest) and the middle level where the celebrant or priest conducted the service.

A view out the front window from further toward the front

Another view of the front - the Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Apostles Creed were illustrated in front of the altar. In the write-up about the church, it mentions the monument on the south wall (right):

Looking toward the back of the church - balcony up above.

We were able to talk with a gentleman who knew a lot about the church building after the service. Carl asked him about the thick walls; he said that the they were not thick with insulation but that they were thick brick walls with plaster over the brick.

My parents had been good friends with the Richardsons before I was born; as I remember it, Dick Richardson had been instrumental in starting much of the restoration of the church done in the early 60s. I was looking up information as I wrote this blog - I knew he had died before I was aware of knowing him; I found that he died on Christmas Day in 1961 (I would have been 1.5 years old). I remember his wife, Margie, and how beautiful she was. She just passed away in 2016. She made many gifts in Dick's memory, and in memory of her parents, to St Peter's church.

A video about the history of St Peters church building: https://vimeo.com/180264122

Even though this was not a church I regularly attended as a child, visiting on Sunday and looking up information as I wrote this blog has brought back a lot of memories.