Green Hill Church Sunday
Green Hill Church Sunday is a tradition that began over 150 years ago when congregations from five local Episcopal churches in Wicomico County began making a pilgrimage to their mother church for a joint, once-a-year worship service. This traditional gathering in late August honoring St. Bartholomew, one of the original 12 apostles, has continued uninterrupted since 1887, including during the 2020 pandemic, using a pre-recorded service offered virtually. This year the service was held on August 27.
Hundreds of people of all faiths come to experience this unique worship service in an early 18th Century colonial church building lacking electricity and featuring box pews, brick floor, barrel-vault ceiling, and a towering side pulpit. All are invited to the free community picnic held afterwards on the church grounds situated on the shady banks of the Wicomico River.
Located south of Salisbury in Quantico, Old Green Hill Church, properly known as St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, is living evidence of the early colonial presence of the Anglican Church on the Eastern Shore. Dating from 1692, it served as the parish church of Stepney Parish. The current building was erected in 1733, replacing a log structure constructed about 1694.
St. Bartholomew’s is a church with a rich history. Located in “a town that never was,” Old Green Hill Church stands on the high ground of the Wicomico River’s west banks where Green Hill Town and Port was planned as a port of entry to overseas markets for the surrounding agricultural region. The town was surveyed into lots with the official plat recorded in 1707. However, navigators soon found that the Wicomico was navigable for many more miles upriver where road networks converged. So, Green Hill Town was abandoned, and the vitality of the church congregation and parish eventually waned.
Owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Easton, whose geographic area covers the entire Eastern Shore of Maryland, Old Green Hill Church has had no regular worship for hundreds of years. Its most active years were during the colonial period when it served as an Anglican Church. Its history is closely linked with European settlement on the Eastern Shore when all of Maryland was governed as a royal proprietary province granted in 1632 by the King Charles I of England to Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
The Anglican Church has been active in Maryland since 1631 when the first Anglican worship services were held on Kent Island. In 1692, the Anglican Church became the established church of the colonial province through an Act of the General Assembly conveying official status, which meant that local governments paid tax money to local parishes, and the parishes handled some civic functions. Old Green Hill was then located in the original Somerset County, which encompassed present Wicomico, Worcester, and Somerset Counties and a portion of southern Delaware, and was created in 1666 by a proclamation of Lord Baltimore to honor his sister, Lady Mary Somerset.
The Episcopal Church has deep roots on the Eastern Shore. It was formed in 1776 as the successor to the Anglican Church, the same year the American colonies won independence; a majority of the Anglican clergy refused to swear allegiance to the British monarch. The Episcopal Church is now composed of 108 dioceses in 22 nations and territories. It is part of the Anglican Communion, a gathering of Anglican and Episcopal churches around the world with 80 million members in 44 regional and national member churches in more than 160 countries.
A new preservation plan for St. Bartholomew’s was unveiled in August 2022. The plan indicates what additional work needs to be done to preserve this important historic landmark for future generations and to restore it to its original 1733 condition. “The Preservation Plan provides detailed information about the original structure that will guide our preservation work to ensure historical accuracy and safety in preserving Green Hill Church,” said Lee Ellen Griffith, the Chair of the Green Hill Church Committee.
Although the restoration work is ongoing, the Church is already a wonderful, well-preserved example of early 18th Century colonial architecture. Two years ago, new historically accurate doors were constructed and installed in the church. For more information and for directions to the Church go to Old Green Hill Church’s Facebook page.
Additional sources:
St. Bartholomew’s Annual Worship Service Bulletin, Rev. Laura Dorsey, editor, August 2022
Press Release: “New Preservation Plan for Historic Green Hill Church to be Announced at Annual Gathering August 21, 2022.” The Very Rev. David Michaud, July 2022
A native of Salisbury, Vic Evans has lived in multiple Eastern Shore locales that now include Chestertown. Before retiring as an architect and planning consultant for schools, colleges, and universities, he worked with education and government clients throughout Maryland, the mid-Atlantic region, Mississippi, and internationally.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
